A Confused Student

A kind gesture can go a long way. To commit to a seemingly insignificant action, such as a wave or a smile, does not take much out of a person. At the same time, a simple gesture can often be misinterpreted. Or in some cases, mean something completely different altogether. A simple, “Hello, how are you doing”? can sometimes translate to, “Hello, I am out of my mind”.
A college campus with large numbers of people can often make cause for a large amount of confusion. What with so many people from all walks of life interacting at one time with their own things to do you have to expect some things to get lost in translation Queens College is a campus of quite a few thousand students, all coming and going with their own individual priorities. While working to succeed, weather or not it involves the acquisition of a degree or just self-enrichment; students are always on campus in large numbers.
Working towards a baccalaureate or masters can take a lot out of a person. Many people commit to traveling four or five days a week to college to secure that shiny new degree. But in order to obtain an official Queens College document with ones own name written in perfect cursive, one must commit to long schedules and a large workload that contribute to the blank expressions found on many burnt-out college students faces.
With all of this commuter traffic and so many different people, all with completely different stories and personalities, it can be a little overwhelming for an average student. After a long stretch of classes one might emerge from the blackness of Boredom 101 desperately looking for some sort of contact with another human being. On the converse, one might not want to see another soul when moving from one place or another. This depends on the person; one person might end up walking on campus with a positive outlook after a particularly enthralling lecture where as another might be interested only in getting on the bus and leaving.
Either way, when paths cross students are often excited to drum up a brief discussion between classes. They can often be seen in their natural habitat sharing cigarettes while deep in conversation. This combination is one of natures best stress relievers, well in the case of the average college student it is. Upon exiting a class and walking down the quad, one might encounter a few familiar faces, maybe someone from another class or an old friend from High School, either way it is not surprising that some people can be met with the strangest of expressions.
When seeing someone familiar the natural reflex is usually a smile, a kind gesture that hopefully carries over to the other persons psyche in a positive way, maybe. This is assuming that one is smiling at someone familiar, and not one of the thousands of other students on campus that one maintains absolutely no connection with. The level of awkwardness increases ten-fold when one chooses to couple that smile with a wave, and then direct it at someone who is really a complete stranger. Confusion felt by both parties after this odd exchange is overwhelming.
It is at this time that one realizes his or her folly; you have just confused a stranger for someone else, and in the process made yourself look like the Mad Hatter of the college campus. Nothing says, “I’m crazy” quite like approaching a stranger with a smile on your face.

-R. Bacchus