Friday I was walking out of the student union when a young man politely stopped me and asked for help. He looked like a high school student, or maybe a freshman. When I said “Sure, what do you need?” He replied, “Can you tell me where the location ‘various’ is?”
It took me a second to understand what he had just asked. When it registered, I said: “Well, that could be anywhere at UCF.” He shrugged and marched on. I should have stopped him and asked why he was on campus or what event he was trying to get to, but in the moment, his question left me almost as bewildered as he was.
At first, I blamed him for asking such a silly question. Then I blamed whoever gave him the form with such vague instructions. Then I blamed me. I should have been more helpful. It was a teachable moment and I whiffed. Tiffany would have never let this happen, I thought. She would have rescued him and he would have been grateful.
It’s easy to forget how daunting of a place UCF can be. How easy it is to get lost in a crowd or in one of our various buildings. It’s one of the motivations behind our first professional development course. You can’t succeed here if you don’t know where you want to go or what you need to get there. It all seems easy — until it isn’t. Then panic can set in as you search nearby to find someone who can give you the answers you now desperately need. If only that young man had checked the form he was given and asked the person who gave it to him, where exactly he needed to go. Everybody would have been better off, especially him. Instead, he left it to a last-minute chance encounter with a stranger who wasn’t prepared to answer the question he asked. It didn’t go well. Don’t let this happen to you.