I type this based on an event that happened last night. To preface it I live in a University Town, and there are a few student houses down my road. Unfortunately one of those student houses is next door neighbors with my parents, with the extra misfortune of them being the least behaved out of all of them. I also want to add, that I once upon a time was a university student and have been guilty of the typical anti-social behavior. When you’re at that age, self-awareness and maturity haven’t really caught up to you yet. I would be lying if I was well behaved, I irritated my neighbors quite often and now in my 30s looking back they had every right to be mad. I was too noisy, and didn’t respect their situation or have full understanding of how precious their peace and quiet would be to their sleep and mental health.
To set the picture it is a Friday night in June, most students have finished their final exams, many of the houses are already empty as they have gone home for the summer. Most of the time the students next door will have a gathering in the living room watch the footy, have a few drinks, socialise and respectfully call it a night at 10:30 – which was forced into place after they went too far one night. Sometimes if they are too noisy I would curtain twitch like the typical nosy neighbor and grumble in true British fashion, and hope they would quiet down. Which they always did to my relief, and to my parent’s relief.
Last night was different.
As the night progressed, they got louder and rowdier, eventually spilling onto the streets. I hoped they would see sense, but they didn’t. Perhaps something else was added into the mix that night, be it biological or pharmaceutical. I watched on both hoping that they would calm down and call it a night and that I had the strength and resolve to do something about this situation. I fought internally hoping for the courage to intervene. It culminated with one of the students climbing into his car clearly under the influence, to vacate the driveway so his visitors could leave. He was making a mess of it, whilst his drunken friends messed with him and egged him to be reckless with endless revving. It was 11:30PM at this point. At this point I was so mad and disgusted, that I threw my bedroom window open, and screamed at the top of my lungs telling these fucking clowns to stop making so much noise. Suddenly you could hear a pin drop in the darkness, as they scrambled in hushed tones.
Fight or flight had taken over at this point, and I was in fight mode. I was in such a rage I couldn’t find my keys to open my front door, which was a good thing. By the time I found my keys the red mist had gone, but I was still so damn angry. This was probably for the best, as I don’t think I would have been able to deal with them in a logical manner. I eventually confronted the remnants of the party who stayed behind, and told them off for their behavior, whilst calling them every name under the sun – which I now regret. The whole time my heart beating out of my chest.
When I got back into bed, I felt a little bit bigger, and the whole world around me felt a little smaller. I took charge and successfully transformed some chaos into order, our small street was at peace and a new precedent was set.
For the first time in a very long time I took charge rather than staying as an observer in the background. The next time such a need arises, I can be sure that it will take less activation energy, and each time I take charge it will become easier than the last time. Like everything else in life, sometimes you have to take charge to get the outcome you want.
Until next time
Faz