Expect The Unexpected

Well, the second class session was quite interesting. The activities that happened the second time around were just as unexpected as the first class meeting. So, around 7:40 I walked into the classroom and sat down waiting for the class to begin. At 8AM, the professor walked in and asked if everyone signed in and then he wrote 308 on the board. That number immediately struck a chord with me because that was the number to a classroom I had the previous quarter which was Color Theory. The professor asked us all to go move to that room and find a seat. Having been the second day in this classroom that we were in, 320, I had developed some comfortable feeling to the fact that this was going to be my classroom for the next 10 weeks, and I had already developed some sort of bond with the classmate next to me. But all that was thrown out the window when we all moved to room 308. I walked in and immediately hunted down the same seat I had in Color Theory. Now, here we all were, fresh and new again in terms of a new classroom setting and possibly sitting next to new classmates. And although I had been in this classroom before, an uncomfortable and anxious feeling came over me. I found myself asking what’s next?

The professor lectured for a while about IP addresses and the like, and while we were getting into discussion, and that comfortable feeling came slowly sinking back in, he came fast with a curve ball. He had a task for us which was to get up from where we were sitting and to organize ourselves in alphabetical order by first name. Well, having only learned about 3 student’s names from the first class session, this was going to be interesting but chaotic. And boy was it. At first, everyone was somewhat hesitant and looked confused, but within the first minute, everyone was asking each other what their names were and moving to the general area of the room they believed they would be sitting at. Since my name starts with the 4th letter of the alphabet, I knew I might be sitting in the front row. Once the A's were figured out one female student yelled out if there were any more A's, then went on to ask if there were any B's. Since there were no B's, the two C's that were standing near me took their place and then it was the D's. A male student next to me, whose name also started with the letter D, asked what my name was and after figuring out who went first alphabetically, we both took our seats. There, I was done, my part was finished. Sitting down now next to a somewhat familiar face but nevertheless a new person was bringing back the first day of class feeling. While there was confusion with the second row and it took them the longest to figure out the order, everyone in the class eventually was seated. Could we have done it faster? Sure. Could there have been more order? Absolutely, but none of that really mattered at the time, it was crucial to understand what had just happened. The professor then asked around what we thought the reasoning for the alphabetized seating was all about. While some students said it was to "wake us up" and to "break the ice", I think it was about the experience itself. In all my life, I have never had to do that ever in a classroom setting. So, it was a new experience for sure. One can look at it like someone giving you an idea or proposition, and having to work with that. What would happen in this scenario? The end result was not only interesting but exciting too.

So then we went back to discussion for a while which included the idea of time and its purpose. Being a person who questions things, it was a more familiar topic to discuss than IP addresses. Then somewhere along the discussion, the question what if came up. The professor asked what if time wasn’t linear, and after hearing his ideas of what else time might be, he asked us a what if question. Starting in the back of the room, he went down the line asking everyone what if? Responses were hysterical, typical, and interesting. Then I thought, what would be a really good what if question but one that actually would relate to me. So, when it came time for my response, I asked what if money didn’t exist? And rather than just answering the question and being done with it, I thought about it after I asked it. Really, what if money didn’t exist? What if there was another way that people on this planet where rewarded for their hard work? All these ideas came flooding in and before I knew it, all the other what if responses had passed and we moved onto a slide show of various images. Right here at that moment, I knew, whether i was still slightly uncomfortable about where I was sitting, and who I was sitting next to, that this class is going to be a challenge. Not to say it won’t be challenging like other classes but it is definitely going to be challenging mentally. Let's just say I walked out of that classroom with a slight headache, but a good one.

With the first week of school finished, there is still plenty more to come and who knows what we are going to be doing, observing, experiencing, learning, about the course subject matter, our classmates, and ourselves. It’s going to be interesting for sure.