There you are in your first discussion hoping it will end in the first 10 minutes. After all, how much do you really have to discuss on the first day of classes? Your TA hands out the syllabus and you think, "Yes, I'm golden! This can't take too long." Then he throws you a curve ball - one you knew might come flying but hoped would not. He says, "We're all going to go around and introduce ourselves," and you think, "This won't be that bad. Ten more minutes tops." And then he seals your fate by continuing, "Just your name, year and a fun fact about yourself."
Sure, why not? One fun fact. Just one simple random factoid about yourself, right? Wrong. Your fun fact is your first impression and you only get one chance to make a first impression. Apart from your outward appearance, this is all that your other peers have to judge you by. It's important. This is the situation I found myself in Wednesday.
The first thing which popped into my mind was my role model. I could pull a Cady Heron under pressure and go, "I have really bad breath in the morning," but then everyone would know I have really bad breath in the morning. Few, if any, would get my "Mean Girls" reference. I would be sitting in that lecture alone, just my early morning halitosis and me.
I could go the "I did this really cool thing over break" route, but that would have required me to have actually done something really cool during break, i.e. something other than watch obscene amounts of reality television with my high school besties.
How could I not think of something interesting about myself? I mean I have friends. There have to be a few things which set me apart from the other 19 students in the classroom. As I looked around I noticed I clearly couldn't use my class ring and North Face backpack to differentiate myself. I'm a hypochondriac, but I don't want to be that girl. I'm overly obsessed with Coke Zero, to the point that I consider it water. No, that isn't particularly fun. It's just weird and indicative of my addictive personality.
After much consideration, I decided to share that I'm a writer for Love Connection, which led to a discussion about dating I would have preferred not to have in an academic setting. But hey, I stood out! Isn't that the point?
Truthfully, this wasn't the first time I'd found myself in a moment of deep self-reflection under a strained time limit. A year ago, as a second-semester second year who should have been well on her way to declaring her major, I found myself in the same predicament. Ah, they never learn do they? When asked for a fun fact, I retorted, "I have no idea what I want to major in, so you know that's fun!" I was hoping to impress my peers with my laid back attitude and dry wit. Alas, no such luck. There were just blank stares from across the room and crickets chirping. There was no sympathy from my TA, no "I'm sure you'll figure it out." Just a hesitant, "Thanks, next?" Yeah, clearly, that discussion went well.
Some people are just born with charisma, some people are just born with fun facts and some of our lucky peers were born in exotic locales. Maybe they were born a twin - double the fun, eh?\nI've developed a surefire way to find that one not-so-simple fun fact. For those of us who weren't just born with it, I've come to realize the key to finding a fun fact is finding the medium - the average. Isn't that ironic? Your fun fact must make you approachable but not easy, interesting but not pretentious, different but not weird. It's a slippery slope.
At long last, if you still have trouble finding that one interesting fact to share with your discussion, relax, because here's the thing: Everybody has something interesting and fun about himself. Maybe it can't be condensed into one sentence, or maybe you'd like to be more mysterious and have people figure it out in due time. If that isn't enough to console you, trust that everyone else is as anxious to escape the first discussion as you are.
Abbi's column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at a.sigler@cavalierdaily.com.
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