People Are Good

Internet research is great for background. But nothing takes the front seat like asking humans--in person--for help.

During the recent scavenger hunt that we did in News Writing, I was reminded that people like to help when they can. Even for a basic scavenger hunt for a journalism class -- no one asked why we were trying so hard, or why it mattered to us to get the answers.

People just helped. Because people are good and because they have answers.

Teammate Brittany Schaefer and I took on 3 questions. We asked our other group members to pick the other questions to work on. Brittany and I speed-walked throughout the questions. We guessed, we took chances. We had to solve riddles and ask our own questions to find the answers we were looking for.

The most useful thing I've learned in this class so far is that human help is unparalleled. We went to the T-Hall office and the receptionist gave us the number to the man in charge of the bell. I called him immediately, slightly nervous, had a mini-interview, and hung up.

He was kind, helpful, and resourceful. That segment of the hunt took less than 5 minutes. Looking for the wind tunnel, we asked a receptionist in the geology building to help us figure out the riddle. She and a colleague pointed us in the right direction. I also popped the Internet open on my smart phone.

For the last question, someone in the geology building also pointed us to the only climatologist on campus. I looked her up, found the building she was in, and Brittany and I walked over there. The receptionist there asked us if we were doing the scavenger hunt.

Because we went out and asked people for help and worked together, our group got all the answers and in good time. It was fun, exhilarating, and eye-opening to see how good people can be.