It's 7:55 a.m. I live off campus, where I still don't have a parking spot. After my usual stop at the Starbucks drive through, I'm on campus. I speed down Volunteer Boulevard at 40 m.p.h. sipping on my grande soy chai latte when I reach campus.  There they go: the mass exodus of students crossing at one of the four cross-walks between me and my class. 

It looks like someone kicked an anthill and all the little creatures are scurrying about.  Half of them don't even notice me because their iPods are turned-up so loud they can't think through the noise. After an agility competition between pedestrians and my car, I arrive at class, inevitably late.

It seems to me we all need to go back to first grade when teachers held our hands…I've been on both side of this scenario.  I've also been the pedestrian who doesn't understand why cars can't stop when the pedestrian is standing in the rain. It's a dance of right-of-way.

Obviously, traffic is a huge issue on and near campus.  But when pedestrians take the right-of-way without looking before crossing, serious incidents can occur. 

It seems to me we all need to go back to first grade when teachers held our hands and encouraged us to "look both ways before you cross the street." Or when we first had our driver's permit and parents would tell us to "be sure to come to a complete stop at the cross-walks. That could be your little brother out there."  Where have all those lessons gone?

We all need a little lesson in being considerate.

On a campus with 26,000 18-to-25 year-olds, we need to be more aware. Aware of ourselves, aware of other people, aware of the impact of our decisions on others.

I often take for granted my good luck in having never hit a pedestrian or never being hit by a driver. Some aren't so lucky.