Hello stranger,

I'm sure you can recall the morning it rained a little on campus -- it was just a few days ago. I was walking down the really nice, but narrow stone path as a shortcut through Staller Steps to get to my 10a.m. class. It was drizzling, but the stones were visibly wet, and though I wasn't so sure walking on slick stones was a good idea, my time didn't afford me to take the long way to the art side of the Staller Center. So I began descending, and that's when I saw you.

You were making your way up the path, umbrella overhead and your eyes practically glued to your phone screen, smiling at something clearly entertaining and totally worth walking right into a stranger or injuring yourself somehow. Hey, I totally understand; you were enjoying yourself and the people around you will just have to be inconvenienced by your lack of awareness should you actually make contact with them. It's cool.

Clearly you weren't going to lift your head for even just a second. Even a fraction of a second was too much of your attention to ask. So you pressed forward, causing me to quickly swerve out of the way to avoid having an uncomfortable run-in with the spokes on your umbrella. By the way, I rolled my eyes (you know, the ones that could've been poked out by your umbrella) at you but you obviously didn't see me because, once again, you were so engrossed by what was on your screen to even look up for a millisecond. I don't think you were even aware that you had just walked past another person.

What would have happened if we were both on our phones, completely unaware of the people passing by, hurrying to class? We likely would have walked right into one another, our umbrellas clashing, phones clunking together and then probably falling to ground. Not to mention, we'd both think that the other one should have been watching where she was going, and completely forget that we ourselves were just as wrong for not making it our personal responsibility to be on the lookout.

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people on this campus intensely texting or using their phones while walking -- not even sparing a glance to survey their surroundings -- and then either trip, brush past someone gruffly, or walk right into something. Yes, I know that we have all looked at our phones while walking at least once, but if that's what you're going to do then you should at least pick your head up every couple of seconds to make sure that you're still heading in the right direction and that you haven't left a trail of irritated peers in the dust. Better yet, stepping over to the corner to text, laugh at a video, or like your friend's new profile picture on Facebook will ensure that you aren't in anyone's way.

So people are probably thinking that I'm being dramatic and that nothing actually happened and I'm b*tching about nothing. Truth be told, I'm sure pretty much everyone has been in a situation like mine and has been annoyed -- even momentarily -- because of it. But this habit of walking while texting and not even giving your surroundings a second thought can have actual consequences. And no one wants to be the person who gets hurt because their classmate didn't stop looking at his or her phone long enough to realize there's a person in front of them.

You've probably learned nothing from our near miss, but don't worry, keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure you'll learn eventually.

Sincerely,

A student astounded by just how much you love your phone