College students have a funny way of justifying actions they innately know are wrong. I like to call it the Vindication Proclamation. I see it literally every day on and off campus; whether it be five too many stolen pieces of fruit from dining halls or a stolen spoon from a restaurant on the hill, I've noticed a psychological pattern that appears to ascribe to a feeling of unrequited righteousness. I'm no different from the average "feed-me-I'm-a-starving-intellectual" college student, my double literature majors may very well land me more a comfy cardboard box home as predicted punishment for my non-conformation to the sciences and engineering majors; however, I'm surprised there's no appearance of guilt in these adolescent perpetrators whatsoever.

Why does it seem everyone, students and adults alike, seem to feel that someone in this world owes them something they aren't receiving elsewhere? I actually have made it a habit to swipe a banana every time I eat breakfast on campus, but that's simply because I consider it a very mobile fruit; and never have I once thought or said that the school actually owes me more food on top of the excessive all-you-can-eat extravaganza they slam us with every meal. Hey, I'm not happy about the price of public education sky rocketing either, but is this really a way to comfort one's self? Call me crazy, but stuffing apples into one's pants as though in preparation for an educational apocalypse doesn't make me feel any better about my tuition and housing bills, nor will it do anything psychologically or physically to watch all that fruit rot in my dorm room. I thought the freshman fifteen was a fear, how is stealing even more food from dining halls anything but detrimental to this paranoia of obesity and discarded, unfitting clothes from high school?

I wonder if this is a sense that is installed within our foundations as people, or if some of us just develop this through our environmental exposures. Likewise, I'm curious as to whether some develop this sense of "you-owe-me-more" more deeply or differently from their peers? Most of all, I wonder what, if any, emotional repercussions do and may arise from not only stealing objects and food to begin with, but trying to justify it every chance one gets as though to attempt to eradicate the awkward, kindergarten-esque guilt and shame at conning the lunch ladies.