Recently I have been having one of those moments where I started to notice my surroundings more than usual. Occasionally, I ponder on life and notice aspects of myself that I never payed attention to before. I consider myself a quite calm individual, but every so often there is something that makes me tick. Like the majority of people, I have few things that do not agree with my person, no matter what everybody else’s opinion is, I just can’t stand them.

1. People chewing with their mouth open

Dear person sitting in front of me in the dining hall,

I do NOT want to see the content of your mouth. Ever. Don’t think for a second it was my desire to.

Respectfully,

Everybody

2. People chewing loudly

Food category related to mastication again. You know that sound mac and cheese makes when you stir it? Yup, that's the one and it makes my skin crawl.

3. Barbecue sauce

Against popular opinion, I can’t stand the smell of it. Maybe it's because I grew up in Italy where we tend to prefer other types of condiments, but I just don't like it. Every time someone uses it around me, my stomach revolts.

4. Food in the sink

You are in a good mood because you decide to “adult” and do the dishes after your home cooked meal (that you prepared all by yourself, you know “adulting”, am I right?). Then it happens. That dreadful moment comes and you touch some squishy entity that once used to be food. Every inch of your skin gets immediately covered by goosebumps and every single hair in your body raises. It is the most disgusting sensation ever and it happens each time you put your hands in that nasty tinted water. It gets you by surprise every time. You should know better by now, but you forget, until the next time the look of horror on your face will reappear.

5. Lack of manners

Particularly rude customers – they walk in without some sort of greetings and say: “I want…”. No, you can turn back and go away. What makes them thinks it is okay to be rude to another human being? The disrespect and entitlement of some people is just too much for my poor nerves and makes me want to slap them right in the face, but since my parents taught me some manners, I will not follow my impulse and answer politely.

6. Competition among friends

A.k.a friends that compete for who had the worst day/week.

When in a reunion and you start telling your friends your week that didn’t go as planned, they interrupt you and start telling you the series of unfortunate events happened to them. So your much needed little release of steam turns into a competition in which you are not the winner.

7. Not being able to binge-watch my shows

With the start of autumn comes new seasons of TV shows. Despite my excitement, I have to wait for an episode to come out every week, but I'd rather watch a whole season in one sitting without taking any breaks, until my corneas can’t take it anymore. The traditional airing programming is not giving me an excuse to procrastinate and this is unacceptable, as a college student I feel that procrastination is part of my studying routine and I wouldn’t know what to do in its absence.