Rossana Woo
“Always keep your head up. Take a risk and get your heart broken. Love if they love you the same. If not, let go and don’t look back. Be proud of yourself everyday.”
This was one of the many inspiring messages written on the stall of one women’s restroom at Pierce College.
The seemingly inactive bathroom around the corner from The Learning Center was once a treasure trove of quotes, comments and song lyrics.
On Feb. 26, the motivational adages were painted over. What seemed to be a growing connection between Pierce women is now no more.
Unlike other bathroom stalls that exhibit bold proclamations of one’s love for a guy or scribbled obscenities related to bodily excrement, this particular stall was nothing short of inspirational.
“Real is better than a fake and polished mask,” was one inspiring message.
In the space beside the toilet paper dispenser was another statement: “It’s amazing really. I remember back in high school where bathroom stalls were painted with epithets and obscenities from countless girls to countless girls. Yet here, lo and behold, a growing mapwork of shared quotes.”
Juan Rodriguez, plant facilities painter at Pierce, was assigned to cover up what was referred to as graffiti in that particular bathroom. After he arrived there, he expressed his sorrow for having to paint over what he called “positive thoughts.”
“It was not really bad graffiti. I feel kind of sad that I had to cover them,” he said. “Whoever did it, they are going to come and say, ‘Oh! What happened to my art?'”
Rodriguez explained how the custodians at Pierce visit the men’s and women’s bathrooms in the morning to check for graffiti.
“Usually for girls we don’t check because… it’s very rare. They’re very clean,” he said. But the jumbled m√©lange of words became too illustrious for custodians to ignore.
“We just have to keep it up,” Rodriguez said, referring to the college’s custodial staff’s view of cleanliness.
Maryum Qubadi, first-year Pierce student and frequent visitor of that bathroom, wondered why the school decided to paint over the messages. She thought the words of wisdom were really cool and interesting. Though she never added any personal quotes herself, she did always go back to see if there was anything new.
For Pierce student Sheryl Ma, the short and sweet messages of “Just enjoy what you have and you’ll be happy” and “The only thing you’ll regret is not doing what you wanted to do” were the ones that stuck in her mind.
The connection women had in that stall reached beyond just adding quotes to the walls. One would give her response to another’s message, stating her concurrence or adding on to what was written.
In response to one message, “The key to life is honesty and fair dealing-if you can fake that… you’ve got it made!” was a comment that read, “This is an example of the ‘If I can successfully lie to myself-then it will be true’ fallacy.”
Part of the lyrics to the song “Raindrops” by the singer Pitbull were added: “What’s victory with no loss/what’s smiling with no tears/what’s love with no hate/what’s courage with no fear.” In response to those lyrics, someone stated, “I heard the song. Loved it. Thank you for the recommendation.”
Amid the inspiration were the usual profanities and bizarre remarks. Replying to the exclamation, “I farted & it felt good!” was the remark, “Funny s**t.”
On a more obscure note was a comment about Adolf Hitler. “Hitler was dumb because he did not have blue eyes or blond hair. [The] whole country should have killed him.” The comment left for that remark was not legible.
Aside from the few vulgarities, inspirational quotes were what dominated the walls.
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you’ll land among the stars,” “Sleep keeps the restless ones calm,” “The purpose of life is a life of purpose” and “Anything is possible if you want it bad enough” are a few more examples.
Qubadi pointed out that the stall’s walls were getting too crowed and that the paint job is a good way to start over.
Even Rodriguez said that visitors of that bathroom now have “a brand new chalkboard.”