Expectation vs. Reality: Blue Tiles

 

It's a Wednesday afternoon. I am doing the best I can just to get through the worst weeks I've had in some time. And by some time... I mean almost none at all. I anticipate that we will converse about literature or something else but, instead, we are told to write about what we think of when we think of the bathroom for the opposing sex that we identify with. Odd. An unusual topic for an ordinary Wednesday class. Here is my account from that afternoon's lesson. 

1:30 m- The Expectation 

A men’s bathroom is best often described as a wasteland of filth— although best determined by the surrounding location in which the bathroom presides. 

In a university academic building men’s bathroom. Our university is particularly good with housekeeping and maintenance. Alas, in a men’s bathroom in a university academic building I expect to see blue or neutral colored walls because you know, gender association. The bottom of the walls of the urinals I except to be caked with rapidly dried urine. I expect to smell may be nothing, but, God only knows I guess.

1:39 pm- The Reality.

A men’s bathroom in an ordinary university academic building is nonetheless underwhelming. The gender stereotypes of color were only outlined in the tiles on the floor. The walls, a creme Brûlée cream color. The space itself was much smaller than anticipated. The ratio of the stalls to urinals was a narrow hallway instead of a spacious area. I expected to see nothing and yes, I was correct.