Honestly, the time for joining classes and meeting new people in them has come and gone. Either you posted about forming a study group on Dear Blueno, or you didn’t. Zoom University waits for no one. But fret not, because there’s always time for friendship, and more importantly, there’s always time for fun icebreaker questions– questions that can really help get to know someone. Perhaps they can help you find that special person to cry about your final to. Perhaps they can lighten the mood at the consulting interview you have. Perhaps they are ripe material for a Zoom date that could, in turn, become a quirky wedding anecdote. Possibilities abound!
Socializing can be intimidating at the best of times, so how could you possibly do it over a screen? (as you might have heard, new = normal) Luckily, if you’re Zooming in from your home, you have the gift of being in a space that really– how shall I say this– really speaks for itself. A time capsule untouched by the furious curation you did when you started college and swore you would reinvent yourself. A mythical place that only your mother really knows about, and constantly enters, without knocking. A room that is simultaneously the most authentic presentation of your personality, and the one part of your personality that you want buried. Deep. Your childhood bedroom is the perfect entry point for being asked questions, and because 2014 was unfortunately experienced by us all, a perfect opening for you to ask other people questions, too.
Q: Say, what is that behind you?
A: Oh this? This is just a quote that I stuck on my walls without using a leveller. It says, “Love the life you live, Live the life you love ~ Bob Marley”. I didn’t know the stickers were permanent at the time, but I wanted everyone to see how uplifting I could be. Rest assured, Bob Marley has been a huge influence on me ever since. I love weed.
Q: I love the colour of your walls. It’s so… out there. What made you select it?
A: Anna Wintour called neon the colour of the season, five years ago (sic.) It was then that I really developed a passion for research and developing a coherent aesthetic, and modelled my own room after some of the pages I found on Pinterest (optional inclusion: “This is why I would be an asset to this group project/job”).
Q: Oh my god, cool tapestry/ poster! You like (band that honestly kinda fell off) too?
A: I did listen to some Nickelback growing up. They really capture, you know, a certain moment in history. I like that they are unapologetically themselves. But also, I only bought the poster because the guy was married to Avril Lavigne and my dad wouldn’t let me get her punk poster and I thought this made me cool by association. It didn’t.
Q: Do you sleep in that bed over there?
A: Chill, nosey. I don’t go on sexcapades once my parents fall asleep at 9. Besides, no one else is coming into this bed because my ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’ sheets hardly set the mood. I’d change them, but it’s such a clusterfuck of a colour that it masks stains really well, actually. I just try to spill the wine right on top of teddy-bear-friend Lulu’s red hat. Works every time…….. to answer your question, yes it’s just me.
And these are only a few options! You’ll be pals with them before you know it, once you get to know each other’s *pasts*.
Unless you upload a Zoom background template before the meeting and cover it all up.
Yeah, maybe do that.
Image via Pinterest