In case of emergency

When I think of an emergency, I think of a house on fire, a city being flooded, or a tornado headed toward your town. I think of lost keys when you're already late for work, or running out of gas in the middle of nowhere. I think of someone going into cardiac arrest, or a parent searching for their lost child at a county fair. Many times I claim my current situation is an emergency, though it may not be a major as those listed above. The inability to find an outfit when going somewhere important, for example. Or realizing my work clothes will not be out of the dryer in time to get to work, or arriving at the testing center with just enough time to take a test, and realizing my ID is in my dorm room.

I believe that word "emergency" is quite overused. There are many instances when I exclaim in an exasperated voice, "This is an emergency!!" though in reality, there is just something going contrary to my plans. However, though I may use the word "emergency" more than is necessary, I can honestly say that I have never finished washing my hands, realized there are no paper towels, and labeled the situation an emergency. I would imagine that I am not the only one, in fact, I would like to think that anyone who would consider that an emergency would be the odd-man-out. Recently, however, I have noticed signs on the paper towel dispensers around campus: "Emergency feed on the side"

... Really? Ok, first of all, do the paper towels really get stuck so often that you need to put a permanent sign on it? Could you not just invest in making higher-quality dispensers? And second, who decided to label this as an emergency? Is it really that horrible to dry your hands on your jeans?



Now I am just waiting for the day when I am in desperate need of a paper towel, and the emergency feed knob comes to the rescue... Maybe, when/if that ever happens, I will simply delete this post, and pretend like I never doubted the severity of such a situation.

<3