In life some things just seem to happen for a reason, whether or not they were planned by someone else deliberately. These moments become learning experiences for us all as they teach us to navigate the truly unpredictable world we inhabit. We Brandeis students faced such an event last Saturday as nearly half of campus was without power for the better half of the day. From my understanding Skyline, North, East and parts of Ziv went without power during the freakishly chilly day this Spring.
Now for most this was upsetting, understandably; how else are Brandeis students supposed to watch three hours of anime without our lovely eduroam WiFi? Which, if I might add, even with power Brandeis internet could be classified as an internet “dead zone” by the UN’s ECOSOC committee. But regardless, this event must have been traumatizing for some Brandesians as life without electricity for four hours is just as dull as a Sherm knife. But what are Brandeis students to do but learn when we are pinned up against a wall?
But what to learn during a power outage? Well, the simple answer is how to prepare for the apocalypse, because knowing the admin how could they ever want us to learn useful and handy information? I mean look at the newly instated heath, wellness and life skills classes that students must take now. Nothing is taught in that class, period. Myself and other students walked out of that eight a.m. class with no more knowledge of the school, health, wellness or literally any life skills than what we walked in with.
The introductory course all first years are required to take promotes life skills and wellness, yet forces students to come to class for 8 a.m. and not get enough sleep. Leave it to Brandeis to be so hypocritical and awkward when it comes to life skills. But honestly, that’s why the power outage shouldn’t surprise anyone. What more random and useless knowledge do we need? How to survive the apocalypse of course! Because rather than giving us information on how to talk to girls, do taxes, maintain a healthy diet or even draft professional emails, Brandeis once again takes the road less traveled. Might I add, for my not so quick to get it friends, the road less traveled is less traveled because no one has ever gone down it. Brandeis is no pioneer: Brandeis is merely a poor shmuck wandering in a desert. Though, do not be too critical as I am; maybe one day these experiences will save you during the real apocalypse. And for those who live in Skyline, you have the real advantage over everyone else on campus as you learned far more “life skills’ than everyone else. After all, you do all know how to properly turn a “minor leak” into a fully operational water park! That will be super handy one day!
Life skills are required by all people to know to properly function with one another in some sort of capacity. Unfortunately, Brandeis students will not be receiving them the normal way. We will need to face trials and tribulations in real time just as so many others go down when they decide to become conspiracy theorists and bigfoot hunters. All these skills will come from one infrastructure and lack of good education in class at a time because sometimes there are some things that just can’t be taught in class. So do not gloom when you cannot watch anime or still cannot log into Latte, it’s simply a learning experience!
Brandeis can be a dead zone sometimes, with power outages, pipe bursts, internet crashes, raw and uncooked food and vaccine website crashes. That is not even counting the countlessly pointless HWL courses here, but never fret Brandesians, life will in time teach us everything the University is not currently.
