Several reporters from the Sunnyside Instigator have noticed in recent days that every professor on the campus of West Virginia University has seemingly decided the most fitting way to start a university class, of any given subject, is with a lugubrious series of banal and vexatious get-to-know-you style “icebreakers”, as they are referred to colloquially.
To confirm these rumors, I, (that’s right dear reader, your dearest me) decided to enroll in four years of education at WVU, to see what all the hype is about, and to get to the bottom of this icebreaker conundrum. What I found, and what I saw, after only moments of being enrolled as a student in my first class, (English 101) was a poignant, and downright beautiful lesson on the state of the minds of modern students and young adults.
A student, who will remain anonymous at his own request, sat down, like any other of his peers, at his desk shortly before the 8:30am lecture in Hodges Hall; Airpods in, Clash Royale being played, Internet Porn tabs quickly flashing by as he moved through the applications on his iPhone 16, a quick glance to make sure no one saw his Internet Porn tabs, and so on–the usual happenings of any student shortly before a class begins.
But it was about 15 minutes into the icebreaker section of the English 101 lecture, (the point at which our student realized class had begun, being that he somehow heard his name through the impressive noise cancelling capabilities of his new Airpods Pro™, and a cacophony of various Clash Royale related clamors), that our pupil was asked what his favorite movie was, and why it meant anything to him. He stated rather laconically that it was “probably Marvel or something”, and when pushed to answer why exactly he related to “Marvel”, he stated that it was because “uhhhh like I lowkey kinda relate to the uh like heroes n shit, i mean stuff, you know, because like I wanna help people out too.” at this point a look of realization hit the young gentleman. “Yeah bro cause like people are important and shit, i mean stuff, I guess I wanna help them out.” He paused for a moment. “Yo i’m lowkey like realizing something about myself man, people in my life are like lowkey important to me. Damn….) Another moment of silence was followed by a single tear from his left eye, and although he did not know it, a single tear from mine.
There is much to be learned from this experience, but if nothing else, it’s the fact that students of all variations, even those academically declined to a degree such as the subject of this article, stand to gain something from “breaking the ice”, as they say.
Addendum: The student in question did not attend a second class, not only of English 101, but of any subject, as he dropped out of the University around 4pm the same day.
