Free College Admissions Essays: An Issue of International Concern

College Admissions: Discuss an issue of international concern and its importance to you

It was easy to empathize with Andy Dufresne and the other prisoners in The Shawshank Redemption as they suffered in their prison cells; I suffered while watching the movie. It was not because I disliked the film far from it. But while the prisoners in the movie were serving their sentences in Shawshank Prison, I served my own three-hour sentence for drinking five cups of fruit punch before entering the theatre. When the credits finally began to scroll, I strode quickly to the men's room, opened the door and found, to my dismay, that all seven urinals were already occupied.

Well, not exactly. There were only four people using the urinals a person at every other one. Although there was a considerable line of guys eagerly awaiting the opportunity to relieve themselves, the three odd urinals remained unused. I did not dare to use one of the unoccupied urinals. Instead, I waited my turn along with the two dozen other men ahead of me. I reached the urinal a scant few seconds before losing control.

Why is it that the middle urinals in men's restrooms remain tacitly forbidden? Whether a set of urinals is in an executive washroom or in the train station's public washroom, no man dares to use a urinal located next to a urinal in use. There seems to be no rational explanation for this, and it bothers me that this issue is given so little attention. Some men claim they "just want a bit of privacy." An understandable reason, to be sure, but it lacks substantiation. In the men's restroom of a particular gym close to my home, there are 3 urinals. As one might expect, the middle urinal remains unused. If privacy is the reason for this, why do the men at the gym shower together? There are no barriers whatsoever in the neither showers, nor are the urinals separated from the shower room. On busy days, all showerheads are used, and these same men who shower together refuse to relieve themselves while standing next to one another. So much for the "privacy" excuse.

The issue is even more confounding when one learns that this is an international phenomenon. The every-other-one rule is not limited to developed countries where public restrooms are common; my father grew up in a tiny village in India and told me that Indian men relieve themselves at every other tree, even though there is plenty of distance between adjacent trees.