It was 2 a.m. I was napping in a classroom of the Fine Arts center, postponing writing an essay, when the cleaning crew arrived.

One of the ladies on the cleaning staff came into the room I was working in and told me she would “be out of my way” in a minute.

“Out of my way”, as if she was inconveniencing me by cleaning up after me and my peers.

When I thanked the woman vacuuming the facility, her face lit up. I quickly put my things away, thanked her again for her service and left with a new perspective on the St. Edward’s community.

It occurred to me that she had probably rarely been thanked directly by a student.

To be fair, the chance for worker-student interaction isn’t high, considering the workers arrive in the middle of the night. Even within our own community here at St. Edward’s, which presents itself to be such a liberal and/or progressive school, there are systemic barriers keeping the social and economic classes separate.

Consequently, we tend to diminish the necessity of the service staff (custodians, cafeteria workers, maintenance crew, etc.) because there is a misconception that their service is “lower” or “less than.”

I realized that most of us here at St. Edward’s who benefit from the cleaning services don’t even realize that the cleaning staff has come in and helped us, which seems to have been done by design. Yet, these undervalued members of our community are vital to the way of life on campus.

So how can we change this? It’s as simple as saying thank you, or hello, or asking someone who is serving you how their day is going.

Simple friendly interactions work to break down the barriers our society has constructed. No, this won’t fix the problem entirely, but it will help to bring our community together.

Do your part. Thank someone who helps you.