The Old Bag Lady

College students are often enticed to attend certain campus meetings or events by offering them snacks or refreshments. This is usually a very effective ploy to increase attendance numbers. Apparently this method can also recruit some less savory characters into these sometimes very small and intimate gatherings.

Today for instance, I attended a student run meeting to discuss different career options as an engineering major. I am not an engineer myself, but my boyfriend Ben Affleck sort of put the whole thing together, so I wanted to show some morale support. Oh! And there was a delicious spread of food   provided by a local restaurant, which didn't hurt.

As a non-engineer I made sure to get to the meeting early to make sure I could easily find a seat and blend into the crowd. Students filed in quietly, grabbed their food and took their seats. Soon the event was in full swing as engineering professionals discussed their career paths and answered student's questions.

About halfway through the meeting there came a shuffling from down the hallway. The door to this small lecture room had been left open so stray students could efficiently find their way to their seats. Engineers love efficiency after all. As the shuffling grew louder, it became almost certain the shuffling figure would soon step through the doorway. Sure enough a gray haired and hunchbacked lady waddled through the door with two bags nearly dragging on the ground beside her. Without so much as an apology or glance upward she shuffled her way between my desk and the one next to me, her puffy black coat oozing up around the desks as she pushed her way to a seat in the row behind me. As she maneuvered between the tightly packed desks I watched as the current speaker tried his best to stifle a laugh as he  smiled awkwardly. For those few seconds, the room seemed to warm by ten degrees as I felt the embarrassment this woman clearly did not feel for herself.

Once the speaker concluded, students took turns asking valuable questions related to their fields of study. Not wanting to appear uninterested, the old woman took the opportunity to ask her own barely relevant questions, effectively wasting the time of the students whom these speakers were here to serve. As soon as the questions were over, the woman wasted no time making her way to the food table to make herself a plate. As the next speaker commenced his speech, all I could hear was the harsh scraping of a plastic fork against tin foil as the woman painstakingly attempted to collect every last grain of rice from the lid of a food container. I couldn't help but glance in her direction as I wondered how hungry she was.

The woman insisted on asking more questions once the last speaker finished. As students filtered out of the room, she remained and produced a plastic freezer bag to store her leftover food items. I half expected it to be a used freezer bag, but she was better off than I originally suspected. After packing her left overs, the old woman joined a small circle of students gathered around one of the professionals. She continued to ask obscure questions as students waited patiently to shake hands with these individuals whom could very well be their future employers.

I understand the opportunistic appeal of attending a school event for free food. I cannot, however, sympathize with a woman who rudely disrupts an event such as this. It is my understanding that homeless people generally do not have very busy schedules, so it seems to me this woman could have at least made it to her free meal on time. I was told that she frequently attends these events, which means she regularly walks around campus reading the event fliers, and should have known what time the event took place. Not having a watch is no excuse for lateness because she could have easily shuffled into any classroom to have a look at the time.