University: It’s time to reinvent yourself

The most memorable person from my first week of university wasn’t some new friend or lab partner. Not a professor or TA either. It’s a guy I saw in my first university lecture last September.

I couldn’t say how tall he was. Or recall the colour of his hair, or whether or not he wore glasses. I never actually talked to him. But I definitely still remember him.

I was so busy staring at this guy sitting in front of me, I probably missed the first 10 minutes of what my physics professor was saying.

Actually, I was staring at the spoon tucked neatly behind his right ear.

It was mesmerizing. What was that spoon doing there? Maybe he was about to have a yogurt? Or had just finished his cereal?

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I was dying to ask him: “What’s with the spoon?”

I was still wondering about it when I went to my next physics lecture two days later. Sure enough, the spoon was back, in its rightful place behind his ear. It was there at the next lecture too, which gave me yet another chance to play Where’s Waldo, the Spoon Edition.

Then I got it.

He’s Different. And he wanted to make sure we all knew it.

University is a fresh beginning for all of us. You’re free to reinvent yourself, if you want to. In this vast collection of unknown faces, you can take a chance to be a totally different person from who you were in high school.

Spoon Guy wanted to show his originality, his creativity and uniqueness.

Through the use of a cleverly placed utensil.