College Student Annoyed By Classmate Who Leaves His Belongings On Desk Every Day Until He Discovers The 'Touching' Reason Why
He assumed that his classmate was just clueless. It turns out his head —and his heart was just in the right place.
Jacob Lund / Shutterstock / Twitter When a college student arrived at class every day, he was always aggravated to find that one of his classmates had stacked his belongings on his desk and never moved them until the student sat down.
Until one day he arrived and uncovered the real reason the student was doing it all along, and his heart sank at the realization of his own ignorance.
Thomas McFall, a student in the college Management class, shared the story on his Twitter account, and it reminded readers not to judge a book by its cover as he did for so long.
He discovered that an 'annoying' student was actually looking out for him for the entire year.
“So in one of my Management classes, I sit in the same seat in the front every day. Every single day I sit there,” Tom wrote, and many other college students resonated with the unspoken “assigned seat” rule of declaring a permanent seat on the first day of class.
He shares that he sits next to “some foreign guy who barely speaks English.”
“The most advanced thing I’ve heard this guy say in Engish is, ‘Wow, my muffin is really good,’” Tom wrote. “This guy also has a habit of stacking every item he owns in the exact space where I sit. His bag, his food, his books, and his phone are ALWAYS right on my desk space.”
Additionally, Tom claims that his classmate has another habit that bothers him. “Every single time I walk into class this guy says ‘Ah, Tom. You here. Okay.’ And starts frantically clearing my desk of his belongings,” he wrote. “He then makes it a habit to say "Ready for class, yeah?" And gives me a high five.”
Tom admits that he was “always annoyed” by his classmate. “I’m thinking, ‘Dude, you know I sit in this seat every day. Why are you always sticking your s–t here? And the last thing I want to do is give a guy who barely speaks my language high fives at eight in the morning. Just get your s–t off my desk.”
One day, Tom was running late to class. As per usual, when he finally arrived and looked through the door, he saw his classmate’s belongings stacked on his desk. At that exact moment, another student walked into class late and tried to sit in Tom’s usual seat since it was closest to the door.
However, he never got to because Tom’s fellow high-fiving classmate stopped him. “The guy sitting next to me stops this dude from sitting down and says ‘I'm sorry. My good friend Thomas sits here.’”
“It was then that I realized this guy wasn't putting stuff on my seat to annoy me. He was saving me the seat every morning,” Tom shared. “And this whole time he saw me as a friend but I was too busy thinking about myself to take him into consideration.”
As “cheesy” as it sounded, Tom admitted that he was touched by the classmate whom he misjudged far too soon. After getting his high-five, Tom asked his new friend if he wanted to grab a bite to eat after class, and he gladly accepted the invitation.
“We talked for a while. I got through the broken English,” he wrote. Tom discovered that his classmate had moved to the US from the Middle East to pursue his college education and receive his degree. He has a wife and two children and works full-time.
After asking him how he was liking America so far, the classmate responded that he was having fun, however, he missed his family back home. He also told Tom that “not every American was as nice” as he was to him.
“I bought lunch, of course. The dude deserves it,” Tom wrote. “He gave me a high five for buying lunch. Gotta keep up the tradition.” Tom hopes that other people will learn from his own mistakes. “Moral of the story? Don't do what I do and constantly only think about yourself,” he shared.
“It took me nearly the entire semester to get my head out of my a– and realize this guy was just trying to be my friend. Better late than never I suppose.”
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.