College Students Will Be College Students

Of the many interesting ways to spend a weekend (finishing chores, hiking, watching movies, going to a ballgame, etc), I have found that spectator sports can be by far the most entertaining. My current favorite is "What could possibly go wrong?" On a college campus, there are many opportunities to play this game.

This weekend alone, I have either witnessed or heard of many very well-thought-out activities that, strangely enough, ended poorly. For instance, how were sophomore guys to know that doing chin-ups on a pipe in their dorm room could cause a leak? Also, since the pipe happened to carry water for the sprinklers in their fire alarm system, how were they to guess that it might also set off the fire alarm?

How was a sleepwalker to know that turning in a paper they typed when asleep might, possibly have adverse effects on their GPA?

I was also impressed by the people who decided to throw a party without getting the RAs involved. How were they to know that opening windows and blaring music was not the best way of flying under the radar?

Being the last weekend before finals, this Friday, one genius decided to give us a classic instance of "What could possibly go wrong?" He decided that showing up drunk for classes was perfectly acceptable. Not only that, he decided that that day, of all days, was the perfect time to become an over-achiever. He came, prepared and willing to discuss topics in class. In my physics class, he awed us all by his insight and intelligence when he asked how the flex capacitor from "Back to the Future" worked.

But he did not stop there. One of my friends told me that he attended their class that day, too. He was not enrolled, he had never attended the class throughout the semester, but as my friend said, he was sure there that day, asking questions and taking notes.

I suppose he emerged relatively unscathed, but these incidents all bring to mind some of the practical advice of one of my professors. He would always tell us that there are two kinds of stupid in the world: there are those people who do stupid things, and then there are those people who do the stupid things and let everyone know about them. I guess my professor probably liked spectator sports, too. Maybe that is why he chose to teach on a college campus...