The world wide web is wild, y'all. But I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you that. Every day I seem to get more and more emails promoting brands I've never heard of (but apparently signed up for their email list--oh, what the poor college student will do for a giveaway) and requests on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat,....the list goes on and on and on.
And to be quite frank, I love it. I live for social media and posting things and getting feedback and everything that goes along with it. Again, I'm sure I do not need to tell anyone of you, that really know me, that. Ever since I got my first taste of Facebook on my 13th birthday (I was not allowed to get an account before then because that's the age Facebook says you need to be and, well, I'm the oldest child so my parents took those things very seriously for me) I have been head over heals for the internet.
Admittedly, I probably spend about 10 million too many hours on my laptop and/or phone every day, but I promise I'm doing productive things. Well, for about 8 of those 10 million hours, the rest are unaccounted for. College today means: assignments online, submissions online, everything online. So I do have a valid excuse for being on my laptop a good portion of my day.
Lately, I have noticed something odd about my time online, though. I appear to have been added to a Facebook group for the University of Minnesota Speech Team. And it seems to have happened over a year ago. How I didn't notice, I couldn't tell ya.
This discovery is perplexing for many reasons:
1. I do not go to the University of Minnesota. Yes, I applied and was accepted but I go to a college that could be considered the very opposite of the University of Minnesota.
2. I have never participated in anything even remotely close to a speech team. Unless you count yelling at the TV when the judges don't turn around on the Voice when the contestant clearly deserves a chair.
3. It is a private group. Someone added me purposefully, I'm sure by mistake, but how they have not noticed their mistake yet is beyond me.
Now, I am not mad about being in this Facebook group in the slightest. To be quite frank, I find it entertaining. I don't have to go to any of the meetings they post about. I don't have to get up at 8am for speech tournaments on Saturdays and ride in a school bus to a small college outside of Wisconsin Dells. I'm just along for the ride.
For some reason I recently began getting more and more notifications for this particular Facebook group. After a quick scroll through their page it became clear that the page has been consistently active. So that leaves me with a few questions:
1. Why does Facebook think I need to know about the ongoings of the University of Minnesota Speech Team at this point in time?
2. Is this a cue from the FBI agent watching me through the camera on my laptop (hi Jerry) that I need to work on my public speaking skills?
3. If I actually showed up to an event or even commented on one of their posts, would they notice that I do not actually attend the University of Minnesota?
A college student's life is full of mysteries. For me, this is, and how to write my midterm Literary and Cultural Theory paper, is my largest one. The who, the what, the where, and the why continue to circle through my mind to this day.
As I fall asleep at night theories run through my mind. There is another Ella Napton (there isn't, I Googled it) and she attends the University of Minnesota and does participate in speech. And I have accidentally taken her place on the team (on Facebook, at least). Or, someone signed up on the interest form at the Information Fair that I'm sure happened last fall with my name because they were too scared to tell the speech captains that they weren't interesting in joining the speech team. I have yet to decide which one is more realistic.
As I sit here typing this anecdote, only one thing comes to mind: "Let's Get Down To Business" from Mulan. Except I'm not defeating Huns, just something random that doesn't really change
my life any way, shape, or form.
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