The "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" Syndrome

by Hussein El Said

I don't know about you, but I mostly live in a fog. Facts, faces, whole vistas sometimes appear suddenly out of the mist, leaving me amazed at what I can see, but also confounded because I usually haven't the foggiest notion what they signify. Even when visibility is good, my mind can hardly integrate more than a slice of what I look at. I am attuned to an internal frame of reference, and what I see beyond is exactly that - beyond me.

The fog is probably good. Those vistas it obscures would quickly overwhelm and immobilize if they became perfectly, permanently visible. It would be the opposite of Narcissus -- staring forever outward -- but no less fatal.

Because the fog constrains my field of vision to that which is immediately before me, there is a reasonable chance that what I see will have some direct relation to my internal frame of reference and thus mean something. So I proceed, interacting with what is right in front of my nose, occasionally stumbling over what materializes out of the mist -- usually cursing at the distraction, sometimes ecstatic over the epiphany.

Where you are now is university, of course, but as in life, university students tend to be very focused on some internal purpose. They are attending class, or they are looking for lecture notes, or playing cards in B1, or getting high in the pergolas. The things necessary to do their tasks they see clearly. But as with life, the university ends up surrounding its students with scenes, sounds and distractions that amount to so much fog. Despite the best efforts of university officials, everything but their original goal usually remains ill-defined and inconsequential. Usability research suggests that they are likely to succeed or fail in their original task, but not to do something else just because the students suggest it. The other stuff simply remains invisible.

In short, I'm guessing you don't have the foggiest notion why you're here. If you actually came here and found exactly what you were looking for - amazing! Otherwise, seize serendipity for yourself. Look for a reason to be here, out the more or less random aggregation of university crap and prepare for a miraculous epiphany to appear suddenly from out of the fog.