These sweaters are warm and fuzzy, unlike flakes. (It’s the Facebook group’s cover photo.)

Everyone at this school is busy. Everyone’s time is valuable. Some people, however, seem to think their time is more valuable than others’. There is a specific group of people who seem to tend to do this a lot; people who flake on purchases on Buy Sell Trade at Barnard.

Picture this: you’re selling a pair of jeans. The thing about jeans is that their fits are often tricky, and you can’t just go by the size; you often have to try them on before you buy them. Which means you have to meet up with the buyer in a private place like your room, or someplace that has a restroom. It’s an entire process. You have to set up a time, and if you need to sign the buyer into your dorm, you have to come all the way to the lobby of your building, etc. And since everyone at this school is busy, setting up a good time to meet is often difficult.

So then somehow, you manage to find a half-hour pocket of time during which both you and the buyer are free. The buyer agrees to meet you in your dorm at 6pm. Perfect, because you have a meeting at 7pm. Even if she is 10-15 minutes late (which in my opinion is the maximum amount of socially acceptable tardiness) you will have ample time. She tells you at 5:55pm that her astronomy lab finishes at 6pm in Pupin, and you live in 110. Great, so it’s going to take her like 20 minutes to get here. She could have just asked to meet at 6:30pm, but that’s fine, you suppose, slightly cranky now.

It’s pushing 6:35pm. She’s still not here. You message her on Facebook: “Are you coming?” She responds after 10 minutes: “Oh, sorry! I realized I got hungry, and 110 is terribly far. I’m standing in a mile-long mile in Ferris and I am planning on having a 5-full-Ferris-course, 2-hour meal. I’m with all my friends who have waited for me to come all the way to Lerner from Pupin, and since I respect their time but I have no amount of respect or regard for your time and I also do not give a shit about the fact that I left you hanging for almost an hour, I couldn’t possibly abandon them!”

You’re pissed at this point, but you need those $20 and that extra space in your closet. She is your client, of sorts, after all. You punch your pillow and scream and respond: “Oh, no worries! Will you be free tomorrow?” She replies, after an hour, “I can come at noon!” Fine, that works. This is annoying, but it’s worth $20.

So the next day, you message her at 11:30: “Are we still good for noon?” She responds, at noon, “Sorry, just woke up! I will be right there!” Okay. It’s not like you have work to do, midterms to study for, bars to go to, vegetables to eat, water to drink. Your time is not valuable at all, and everything that goes on in her life, including that 30 extra minutes of sleep she just got, is of the utmost importance. Cool. No worries. You take a deep breath, drink a cup of milk, and wait, doing some reading.

It is 12:26. She texts you, “Is 12:45 okay?” Fine. Whatever. Hoping she steps in a filthy, NYC puddle on her way here, you go take a shower. Blow dry your hair. Moisturize your legs. Tweeze your eyebrows. Exfoliate your face. It’s 12:57 pm, and she finally texts you that she’s in the lobby of the building. She knocks on your door in about 53 seconds and apologizes for being late. Yeah, you better be sorry, you think to yourself. But you need the $20. You put on your capitalism smile, and she goes to the bathroom to put the jeans on. She comes out, complaining that it’s too big and asking if she can have it for $15 in one breath. When you say no, the price is firm for $20, she says she doesn’t think she wants to buy and leaves with a “sorry! lol” smirk on her face.

This isn’t a true story, but it’s absolutely realistic. There are so many people like this on this campus who have no respect for other people’s time and only think about themselves. I don’t care if a potential buyer doesn’t buy my jeans, but can they at least show up on time to try them on? I have places to be, things to do, people to see, like everyone else on this campus. Everyone here is busy, no one is special! If you say you’re going to come try on the jeans at 12:30 pm, for fuck’s sake, come try on the jeans at 12:30 pm, so that I can make it to my 1:10 class, eat lunch, whatever!

Fuzzy non-flakey sweaters via Buy Sell Trade at Barnard