Opinion: Tone Back the PDA

You know that feeling when you’re sitting in class starving, your stomach is rumbling, and you’re just counting down the minutes until lunch?
Finally you walk outside, impatient to eat and talk with friends. But as you approach your table you see them… that couple sitting on each other’s laps making out in front of you.
Everywhere you look, you can’t escape the massive amount of couples; and there is no way that they are “leaving room for Jesus.”
Suddenly your appetite is out the window, and lunch is spoiled.
So many couples are constantly all over each other around campus in front of friends, peers, teachers, and staff, and it is, frankly revolting.
Without a care in the world, they stand in the stairwells, tongues down each others’ throats. Trust me, no one, especially your teachers, wants to see you in that context; moreover, it imposes an appalling image of you in their mind that will surely not be forgotten, though we all wish it could be.
Respecting yourself enough to refrain from these impulses can go a long way in presenting a professional persona, especially in the presence of those meant to guide and mentor you.
Not only is kissing and committing the unfortunately common act of PDA (public displays of affection) inherently disgusting, it often brings up negative emotions for bystanders.
Sophomore Rachel Richards said “I’m single and it makes me feel lonely.”
Richards is not the only one who has an issue with this; I have friends who are constantly reminded by PDA that they are tragically single.
It’s unfathomable that people don’t even have the decency to take others’ emotions into account.
I want to make it clear what I mean when I talk about PDA.
A little touching is fine, maybe a head on a shoulder or resting your legs on theirs, but if what you’re doing would move us from a G-rating to a PG or PG-13… maybe get out of the hallways first.
The amount of times couples have just been standing in front of me disturbing my route to class is absurd.
Despite my detestment of PDA, I see how some attempt to justify it.
Many will say that if you feel strong emotions in the moment then you should express them, or that it makes others happy to see untroubled couples; however, people in relationships manage to keep their hands to themselves and still have a healthy connection.
For example, Sophomore Quinn Moring said “I refuse to kiss my girlfriend at school.”
I am also in a relationship and somehow manage to continuously strengthen our​​ bond without being overly affectionate, especially at school.
Although you may be a cute couple, I can assure you it does not make your fellow students happy to see you attached to another person’s face in the way of their route to class or in plain sight while they are simply trying to enjoy a meal.