Ogre₦ation

The question I chose to ask people on campus was, “Do you go to school here?” I got a range of reactions, some confused, some sarcastic, and some totally serious.

The first person I asked gave me the best response. When I asked her if she went to Morningside, she scrunched her face in confusion, then fired back a sarcastic answer of, “No, bro, I just like walking around campus with 50 pounds of books on my back!” She laughed a little when she realized that I might take offense to her seemingly bitchy answer, and actually struck up a conversation with me. The best part about this reaction was the fact that I had never met this girl before in my life; she looked like a freshmen. Her response, surprisingly, was the only sarcastic answer I received and I asked exactly 10 people.

Everyone else gave me the same answer of, “Yeah, what about you?” I made sure to ask people I didn’t know so I could get sincere, spontaneous responses. Some people gave me a look of, “who are you and why are you talking to me,” but gave me polite and friendly answers. Many seemed startled when I approached them out of the blue. Most people on campus keep their eyes down when they pass someone they don’t know, so I feel like I made some people pretty uncomfortable simply by speaking to them.

This exercise forced me to come out of my shell a little to walk up to random students and ask a really stupid question. I wouldn’t call myself shy by any means, but I typically don’t talk to people that I don’t know or like. Judging by the reactions I got, I would say I’m not the only one.

~ by Jordan on .