Are you open to a chance meeting as you go about your day?
The paved walkways of Old Campus are not the most efficient nor the most sensible. They intersect in unexpected and often impractical ways for getting from one side to another. Being new to Yale’s campus, I took mental note when a (wonderful) student tour guide mentioned that former president of Yale College, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, did this intentionally so that students may “run into” one another throughout the hustle and bustle of the semester. I have experienced much of this myself already, the hurried greetings or far away waves from one paved sidewalk to another — these gestures build familiarity. Woolsey’s choice aesthetic for Old Campus highlights that relational human experiences are vital in education and, importantly, that they must be made a deliberate part of our daily lives, even if that means it takes a little longer to get where we are going.
Do you find yourself open to chance meetings as you go about our day? When was the last time you were surprised by a chance meeting that brought you joy, or caused you to reflect or connect with someone after the fact?