While I doubt this concept is listed in the dictionary, I feel as though a majority of people living in big communities have experienced the concept of a real-life recurring character.
Living on a college campus, we all have our own set of routines. Generally, we enter the same buildings, eat at the same places and walk the same routes daily. With so many people on campus, we are bound to share similar routines with other people.
Therein lies the concept I like to refer to as a “recurring character.” In a sitcom, a recurring character appears periodically and is recognized by the audience, but has minimal impact on the plot.
While the comparison is not one-to-one, as our lives do not have scripted plots, I believe the metaphor fits really well.
You may share a major or live in the same dorm, and as a result, you see this person literally all the time. Walking along the Ag quad, they’re there, waiting for the elevator, they’re there. There is no escaping your recurring character(s). Yet the more interesting idea to me is what I like to call the “recently unlocked character.” In a video game, there are characters that you have to wait to unlock before they become playable. Another way to conceptualize it is learning a new word. I recall learning the word “impeccable” in school. I had never heard it before, but once I learned it, I suddenly started hearing it everywhere. The word “impeccable” always existed; I had just overlooked it. This concept is far more interesting to me, as even though you have never met before, you suddenly start to see this character literally everywhere.
Let’s try a thought experiment. Think about the last lecture you attended, whether it was this morning, last week or whenever. Now I want you to take a second and think about your professor. I don’t want you to think about the discussion you had, the material they covered or anything related to the actual lecture. I would like you to think about what color their pants were. I’d assume they were wearing pants, right? The thing about our brains is that there are so many details we see every day but never think to notice. In small cases, this can include minute details like the color of your professor’s clothes. In more extreme cases, it can include not noticing an entire living and breathing human being.
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the college campus phenomenon of meeting someone for the first time and then suddenly seeing them everywhere. A thought that has recently consumed me is how I had been running into this person everywhere before meeting them, and I had just not yet registered the familiarity in their face, or ever really taken note of them.
Someone who I now consider a friend once walked past me on campus daily, and we never even acknowledged each other’s existence. This person was previously hidden and is now visible.
We see each other on campus almost every day, yet neither of us would have thought to say hello if we had not met at a random apartment party. This minor stray away from routine changed both of our lives, yet the inciting incident was so insignificant. With our daily routines being so rigid and the butterfly effect being so prominent, our best friends are out there, and we met them because we arrived at Trillium ten minutes earlier than usual.
In our lives on campus, we come across literally thousands of people daily. Yet in our 16,000-person community, how many people would you really say that you know?
When I played video games growing up, the completionist in me wanted to unlock every playable character possible. In the virtual world, I left no rock unturned in the quest to play as every possible character. Yet I wondered why I spent more energy growing a network in the virtual world than in my real one.
I propose we start to live our real lives the same way as our virtual ones. Say hi to that person that you seem to see everywhere, and more importantly, say hi to someone you have never met before. In a community as ginormous as ours, everyone’s goal is always to make a big campus feel small. One thing I don’t think people take advantage of enough is to enjoy the limitless supply of friendship opportunities that comes with a big campus.
So say hello to your recurring characters and do what you can to unlock new ones. Broadening your network is something that you can always do more of, and I think a great place to start is with someone you don’t know, but somehow can’t seem to get rid of.
Jared Miller is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He can be reached at jmm792@cornell.edu.
