Graduate School Artifact

Found item, ink on paper, 8 1/2" x 11", 2008

Laura P sends in the schedule of an anonymous graduate student that was found by her roommate Caitlin. Caitlin is a student at the University of Chicago and saw this paper lying in a hallway. The schedule is presented in crisp, yet bubbly penmanship utilizing vivid red, blue, and black ink. It is in pristine condition for an item recovered from the floor.

The schedule reveals a lot about the (presumably female) student who created it. Here are the key take-away points:

• She's procrastinating - This is a classic technique. She spends almost half the day taking extra long walks and exercising before going to bed early(ish).
• She's broke - She's taking coins to the Coinstar machine rather than making a big "coin run" over summer break. Can't wait until finals are over?
• She's stressed to the point of memory problems - She's giving herself notes to take a shower and go to the library and check out books and look at books and then leave when she is done.
• She's lazy - Reducing your squats from 50 to 20 and then only increasing your lunges by 10 is a big-time weakling move. That is no way to get fit. If that is your attitude, why even bother?

These are just some of the most obvious inferences. What things do you notice? What other stories does this schedule tell? 

Laura P lives in Chicago and works at Northwestern University. She's employed at the same school as Bernardine Dohrn, a former member of the Weather Underground. Laura's roommate Caitlin goes to school in the neighborhood where Dohrn lives with her husband, the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. I've published this found item based solely on its stand-alone artistic merit. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Laura and the people she chooses to associate with.

Comments

[Carl]

OMF is written twice. Is this a code of the Weathers?

[Carl]

CORRECTION: Three times.

[less_cunning]

this is a great blog post