2008 Woodie Awards
Increased awareness rocks TU's small world
Will Maddox
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Opinion
One of my favorite college past times is chronicling the idiosyncrasies that develop in our little bubble of fun.
We can talk about how cold upstairs Coates is at all times, or how the older you get the more likely that the smell in Mabee dining hall will cause you to immediately lose any appetite. But we can save those for another day. Today I want to discuss (and by discuss, I mean ramble on to myself, losing anyone brave enough to get this far in the article) a well known phenomenon I have dubbed the Increased Awareness Effect.
Trinity is a small school, and because we all live together, eat together and go to school together, we start to recognize most faces we see. It is pretty rare, especially by the end of the year, to see someone you have literally never seen before. But it definitely still happens. Maybe it is just someone you have never noticed before, but one day we see someone who is completely new to us.
Now let's say that your encounter with this new person is memorable. Perhaps they say something funny while waiting in line for a sandwich; chances are, you will be sitting next to them in Business Stats. If you are put in a group with that person in class, you will definitely be on a treadmill in the Bell Center when she grabs the one next to you. Maybe you even run into them in the Cambodian history section of the library and find common ground over your hatred of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; you will probably find yourself sitting right behind them for the Tony Blair lecture.
Whatever the circumstances, one thing is for certain (and this is where the Increased Awareness Effect kicks in): You will most certainly see that person, who had been previously unbeknownst to you, everywhere you go for the next few weeks.
I was recently put in a group with a nice young lady for one of my classes. The next thing I know, we are both tutoring on the same days at the same high school, and then I walk by Prassel and look over to see her sitting at her computer through the window (not stalking, it was random, I swear). It should be noted that she did not remember me from class, but how could a person with their own actual friends remember someone like me, who has very little experience with girls other than my own mother?
We can talk about how cold upstairs Coates is at all times, or how the older you get the more likely that the smell in Mabee dining hall will cause you to immediately lose any appetite. But we can save those for another day. Today I want to discuss (and by discuss, I mean ramble on to myself, losing anyone brave enough to get this far in the article) a well known phenomenon I have dubbed the Increased Awareness Effect.
Trinity is a small school, and because we all live together, eat together and go to school together, we start to recognize most faces we see. It is pretty rare, especially by the end of the year, to see someone you have literally never seen before. But it definitely still happens. Maybe it is just someone you have never noticed before, but one day we see someone who is completely new to us.
Now let's say that your encounter with this new person is memorable. Perhaps they say something funny while waiting in line for a sandwich; chances are, you will be sitting next to them in Business Stats. If you are put in a group with that person in class, you will definitely be on a treadmill in the Bell Center when she grabs the one next to you. Maybe you even run into them in the Cambodian history section of the library and find common ground over your hatred of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; you will probably find yourself sitting right behind them for the Tony Blair lecture.
Whatever the circumstances, one thing is for certain (and this is where the Increased Awareness Effect kicks in): You will most certainly see that person, who had been previously unbeknownst to you, everywhere you go for the next few weeks.
I was recently put in a group with a nice young lady for one of my classes. The next thing I know, we are both tutoring on the same days at the same high school, and then I walk by Prassel and look over to see her sitting at her computer through the window (not stalking, it was random, I swear). It should be noted that she did not remember me from class, but how could a person with their own actual friends remember someone like me, who has very little experience with girls other than my own mother?
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