Respect is not a great deal to ask for. Out here we all live in a compact environment, over the years I have become adjusted to the strange hours, the fact that the ship never truly sleeps, and to the fact that I have neighbours who will often have a different schedule than myself. For the most part, we have all been respectful of each other.
Except, apparently, this ship, this contract, where I am the one lone girl who doesn’t like to party in a department full of people who think there is no other way to live than on late nights and caffeine and who shut down the Officer’s Bar nearly every other night.
Night’s when there’s a party (which is almost every night) I can’t get to sleep early because people are making so much noise getting ready for said party – last night it was nearly 1am before everyone finally left the hallway for the bar. Then, if I’m lucky, I have about two hours before they all come back having shut down the bar, and either start bidding each other farewell directly outside my door, or simply continue the party in the corridor. With absolutely no care to the fact that it’s four am by the time they finally quiet down and go to bed. And I have at that point gotten perhaps two or three hours of rest…it takes at least a half hour for me to get back to sleep, and I wake up for my first class on a port day at 7:45.
As a result, I am sluggish, irritable and running on coffee.
Security has been called, it will make a difference for about ten minutes and then they start up again. Management has been informed, meetings have been held, they are laughed off until the next time. These people, this particular group, just doesn’t care that there are a few of us who have lifestyles that do not fit their own, and that we deserve just as much respect for that.
I should be able to sleep just like anyone else.