Growing up if I disrespected anyone in front of my parents I could be confident that sitting down would not be an option for a week. Heaven forbid if I talked back to them directly! I respect my parents and in turn they taught me to respect all authority over me even if I wasn't a fan of the individual. Needless to say this "skill" came in great use to me when I hit college, it allowed me to become friends with my professors and people are much more willing to help you when you aren't yelling at them (fun fact). '

Now, I am sure you can gather that I hold all authority over me with a degree of humility, as they deserve. The most infuriating thing, the most obnoxious action, and the most disgusting behavior you can be sure will make my blood boil is when someone disrespects their authority. Shockingly enough it happens a lot in college classrooms, labs, halls, and events. Does this surprise you? I hope it is a shock to most, but that would be an ignorant expectation to have.

I know some of you love your professors and treat them with the up most respect, and to you I say, thank you. Thank you for being a decent human being, for doing what we all should be doing, and for making this world a little bit better everyday.

However, let us not ignore those who regularly disrespect their authorities. First let's talk about what disrespect to an authority figure looks like! Obviously there are people who are "above" us who do not deserve respect and need to be challenged. Some examples would be a professor that harasses you, an officer who wrongfully accuses you or treats you unfairly, or any other authority figure that treats you differently that others in a negative light. In those cases I say contact the proper chain of command wherever you are and make sure you remain passive for as long as possible. Unfortunately I know that being passive at all times doesn't work in every situation.

Now let's get to the nitty gritty business! Here are some examples of disrespect to a professor (just in case you didn't know in which case I welcome you out of the tunnel of ignorance!).

1) Only showing up to class the day of the exams

First of all this is a huge waste of your money, or whoever is well off enough to pay for you (God bless them, give them a cookie)! Secondly, our professors spend hours on hours preparing lessons for us to learn. Yes, gen-eds are boring and every minute in them is like sulfur rushing into your veins, trust me I get it! Regardless of if you hate the subject or the professor, if you signed up for a class it is rude to not show up. Imagine if you turned in an exam and the professor didn't grade it, gave you a zero, and said it was just because "they didn't feel like doing it".

2) Talking back "disrespectfully"

I say disrespectfully in a hesitant way because there is a correct way to confront a professor about an issue you have with them or their class. If you interrupt a professor (and you are not dying) out of frustration to say something that would not benefit the class as a whole, that is disrespect. While this is usually a singular freshmen issue (which I could write a whole other article on, seriously some of you need to get yourselves together, don't call yourselves adults and act like children) but let's be real people this happens on all levels. Shape up and act your age, or continue to act like a child, either way. Keep it outside of the classroom, trust me I know what an awful professor is like to have, just scream about it later and not in their face.

3) Not letting it go

So this has been the first semester where I have had a class in which a fellow student of mine actually tried to argue that they were on time, 10 minutes after class started. If you walk into class late, with Starbucks, please for the love of sweet potato pies around the world do not try to argue when you are counted late. Now, there have been cases where someone was late because their other class had an exam or was running over, to those of you who were counted late from that, I am sorry because that was not your fault.

Keep it calm.

Keep it clean.

Keep it real.