We all have something to complain about, even though, as Americans, we’re actually quite fortunate and privileged. Still, that doesn’t stop us from complaining, no matter how ridiculous our complaints. We’ll cry to our friends, write angry posts on Facebook, or film hour-long vlogs just to vent our first-world frustrations. Here is just a small taste of things that we feel the need to complain about.
1. When your laptop needs to update
The relationship that college students have with their laptops can often be a complicated one. Laptops are used to help us study for exams, do research for papers, read interesting news articles, and relax with hilarious YouTube videos. Unfortunately, laptops tend to update at the worst possible times. Imagine it’s time for you to give a PowerPoint presentation in class, and right when you hook up your laptop and turn it on, it spends almost 10 minutes updating with no explanation. And does the laptop care? No, it’s a laptop, it does not take into consideration your time or your feelings.
2. When your Amazon delivery arrives late
The convenience of online shopping has made it so that people don’t have to set one foot out of their house to buy anything. Remember the last time you went to go see if there was any deals on Amazon for another impulse buy? It could a new book that caught your attention, a snazzy makeup palette of exciting colors, or even as simple as a cool-looking pen. Two days pass while you wait in anticipation, only to find that your package hasn’t arrived by the expected delivery date. Come on, Amazon, I am not paying for Prime’s two day shipping for nothing! Amazon, how dare you lie to me. I want my money back.
3. When someone eats your favorite leftovers
Food is always a sensitive subject. There are times when we’re asked where we want to go out to eat, and we’re like, “Wherever, it doesn’t matter,” and then there are times when we’d be willing to drive for hours just to get some special donut. That is why it is absolutely awful to save food in a refrigerator that you share with friends and family. It’s late at night, and you can’t finish your plate of your dad’s amazing spaghetti, so you make sure to save a bowl of it in the fridge. The next day, you discover that your brother ate it for lunch, and your heart sinks and you cry on the inside.
4. When someone doesn’t close the door behind them
Some doors are closed for a reason. Maybe you just wanted to watch videos of hedgehogs taking a bath in peace, or you have an essay to cram together by midnight and you need some silence. Whenever people disturb me while I’m on my laptop without closing the door behind them, all of my focus goes towards that opened door instead of the conversation. Hey, there’s a cold draft coming into the room! What if I was getting dressed when you walked in? I just wanted to spend my night alone going on a random movie marathon on Netflix. Shut the door on your way out.
5. When you accidentally set your alarm for PM instead of AM
You don’t really want to, but you have to wake up at six o'clock in the morning so you have time to make breakfast, shower, and commute to the university campus. Instead of going to bed early to get a good night’s sleep, you stay up until two o’clock in the morning studying and taking Buzzfeed quizzes. Fortunately, you have a phone that has an alarm. You set it for six o’clock and climb into bed. Unfortunately, you set it for PM instead of AM, and you sleep until noon and miss your classes and fail at life.
6. When the cereal aisle has too many options
Suddenly, breakfast has become impossibly more complicated when you walk into the grocery store. It's a battle with your conscience on what sugary bowl of goodness you want to eat in the morning. There’s an entire aisle in the store dedicated to the unnecessarily large variety of cereal in all sorts of flavors and sizes. Then you have to choose between the name brand or the cheaper alternative. But wait. The real question-- is there any milk left in the fridge?
7. When all the dishes are dirty
Washing dishes is probably one of the easiest household chores, but it is a chore that no one really wants to do. It probably takes about about 10 minutes to wash a sink full of dishes, but who has that kind of time in this day and age? Not me. That’s why it is absolutely awful to wake up in the morning and open the cupboard to grab a cereal bowl and discover that the cupboard is empty. Then you go into the utensils drawer and find that all the spoons are missing. That is how you end up eating cereal out of a cup and with a fork because laziness is sometimes stronger than washing a couple dishes.
8. When you have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear
It is another morning dilemma that people face immediately after they wake up. I decide to go to class in a pair of jeans, a simple shirt, and a jacket, but which one? I have to dig through my limitless amount of black shirts and still can’t decide on wearing any of them. Should I wear this pair of nice blue jeans or that pair that actually has usable pockets in them? I just wore this sweater last week, but I don’t feel like wearing the five or more other ones in the closet, either. Your professor can point out your tardiness in the morning, but you were locked in an important dilemma that required your utmost time and patience.
9. When your phone dies and you’re without your charger
Like laptops, we all have a very special relationship with our phones. I know that I bring my phone with me everywhere I go, and even if I am at home, I bring it with me into every room that I go into. That is probably a sign of something serious, but I don’t think anyone really cares about that for now. Our love for our phones makes it terrifying to be out with our friends and have our phones suddenly die on us. Correction! Our phones don’t suddenly die-- we watch them slowly die and beg us for mercy. They remind us that they need to be charged, and we really want to give them that comfort until we realize our charger is locked in the car or somewhere at home. Sitting in our pocket, our phones die, cold and alone, while a single teardrop falls from our eyes.
10. When the toilet paper runs out in the bathroom stalls
Bathrooms are one of the most important rooms in a building. It is the throne room of the amazing toilet. One of the staples of the porcelain throne room is having a good supply of toilet paper at the ready for any bathroom situations. So when the toilet paper roll is completely used up, and no one has replaced it yet, you can’t help but roll your eyes. Public restrooms tend to be the worst offenders because then everyone avoids the stall that hasn’t been restocked yet, so there is one less stall available for use. Or in an extremely unfortunate event you where you forget to check if your stall had a roll left before you occupied it, things can take a turn for the worst if you’re not prepared. Toilet paper can save you from a nightmarish restroom disaster.
Ah, the struggle is real. Especially when your laptop is dying on you while you are trying to enjoy your favorite YouTuber’s newest video… and the outlet is out of arm’s reach. Living in a first-world country such as America sometimes makes us forget the kind of privileges that those living in a less fortunate situation roll their eyes at. We should try to remember that there are other major world problems that we should putting more attention into instead of our everyday inconveniences. Still, we will always shed a tear on the inside when YouTube takes more than a second to load a video.
