By Norfaizah Kamil
You toss and turn, trying to get forty winks at 2 a.m, while your room mates are talking and laughing with their friends. Cant you see people are trying to get some sleep here? Plus, its 2 oclock in the morning. Tone down your voice. It’s common sense!
You were standing in line waiting to buy your food at cafeteria when this one person suddenly cuts the line in front of you and ordered his food. You were like, hello Im in the queue and you should too. It’s common sense!
You are at a kiosk wanting to buy glue for your project and you bump into a friend and she was like, œHey, what are you doing here? and you said, œOh, I want to buy glue. And then she said, œWhat for? Then sarcastically you answered, œIm hungry, thats why. Duh, it’s glue, what do you think its for? It’s common sense!
You are driving and you saw a sister trying to cross the road. So, being a good person, you stop the car to let the sister cross over. But she was too busy looking at her phone and didnt have time to cross the road. And then you were like,”sister, you were trying to cross the road but you didnt focus on the road? Instead, you focused on your phone.” Okay, news flash, when you want to cross the road, pay attention to the road. It’s common sense!
Common sense as defined by Merriam-Webster is a sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. It is our ability to make good decisions and to think as well as act in a reasonable way. But common sense isnt so common these days. We dont even know why its called œcommon. Its not that common as most people didnt seem to make a sound judgment and good decision these days. Like if youre driving and you see people trying to cross the road and then you speed up. Uh, why would you do that? Cant you see there are people crossing the road?
Its actually a quality needed to be human. Thats why its called œcommon in the first place. Its something normal. If you dont have it, then youre not a normal person. Common sense is called “common sense” because its something that is obvious and usual. When you are in a certain situation, using your common sense, you will know what to do. Like when you see people queuing up to buy foods. When you see it, you know, œOh, we have to get in line too. Its a simple thing. You just have to be aware of your surroundings and make good judgments and decisions based on your observations of the situations. I believe every human being has common sense. But its whether you know how to use it or not.
œCommon sense is an instinct given to men and enough of it is genius. Smartness is measured by the level of common sense one has, not by how much educated or knowledgeable he is. -Josh Billings, in Thoughts for Meaningful Life-***