The People You Meet in Grad School: Part 4

I haven't posted anything about school in a while, and, given the title of my blog, I felt like it was high-time. Plus, I just got finished self-exterminating my entire townhouse with a smorgasbord of roach insecticide products, so I'm in a stellar mood.

So, here is TPYMIGS Part 4....


4. The Blip

Just as some characters in TPYMIGS lineup are notable because of how obnoxious or conspicuous they are, others are equally as notable for their obscurity in grad school classes.

The Blip is a hard individual to characterize, for the sole fact that they somehow effortlessly fly under the radar of you and all of your other classmates. This is a person that you all know for a fact participated in the whole go-around-the-room-and-say-your-name-and-program-and-where-you're-from thing on the first day, but beyond that, you can hardly remember what this person looks like, much less their name or program.

The Blip never participates, always sits in the corner, doesn't attempt to befriend classmates, doesn't have any existing friendships with classmates from past semesters, perhaps, and you generally just tend to forget the guy/girl is more than a figment of your imagination or a fuzzy shape in your peripheral vision.



The Blip also seems to skip class altogether on a very frequent basis. How they do this and still pass a graduate level course, no one knows. On the numerous days when The Blip is absent and someone actually happens to notice, questions/comments such as these are spawned:

Does anyone know that guy/girl's name?

What guy/girl?

You know, the one with the [insert very generic physical characteristic here].

Oh, I forgot they were even in this class.

Are they taking it for audit?

Have you guys ever heard him/her speak?

Yeah, I swear they were in class last time. They sat right over there (points to some chair in the classroom.)

Um no, that was So-and-So, the IOU. Couldn't miss him.

Does anyone have any other classes with him/her?

Does that person even exist?




By the end of the semester, The Blip has usually stopped appearing in class altogether, and it's obvious they have dropped the course or said a big "F you" to grad school or died or something.

Sometimes, when you're an ubercreep like I am, you get so intrigued by The Blip that you even go on Blackboard, check your class roster, and figure out their first and last name so that you can try to stalk them on Facebook. But alas, even that doesn't work. The Blip is nowhere to be found, even on the privacy permeating, all-knowing social networking site we all hate to love.

Yes, by semester's end, The Blip has eluded identification by even the creepiest of his/her classmates, and the rest of us run-of-the-mill grad students will just have to wait it out until next semester when the next Blip comes along. Maybe then, we can all pull our heads out of our asses and extend friendship to this Lord of Anonymity.

Ah, who am I kidding. None of us will notice he's there.