The Game

There is a game that is played by nearly everyone at the U of C. It is part of the fabric of U of C culture. I like to call it the “I am more miserable than you,” game.

It starts innocuously enough. Person A asks Person B how they are doing. B grunts, a grunt of dissatisfaction, a grunt that requires explanation. In order to ensure that A will ask B about his work, B adds: “You know, I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Oh, what do you have?” A asks, knowing full well that if he hadn’t asked, B would have told him anyway after a while.

B then lists the number of pages of reading and, especially if the books are particularly onerous, will include the author of whatever it is he must read. Next, B lists the number of papers, including their required page range, the number of problem sets, and the number of tests (at the U of C, all tests except for finals are “midterms”, so you can have a midterm in the second or ninth week of a 10-week quarter, or anywhere in between).

While this is going on, A listens intently, nodding slightly. Of course, the listening is really just to make sure A can trump B when A’s time to talk comes up. As soon as the last word has left B’s lips, A leaps into action, listing his work, and working to make sure A’s work seems far more burdensome than B’s. Then C will come up, having overheard part of A’s homework schedule, and lay down his hand: 3 papers and two midterms, that’s a full house, boys, read ‘em and weep.

Occasionally, the scope of the game will be expanded, particularly in a close match. The amount of time recently spent in the Regenstein Library may be involved. The amount of sleep is often used to try to gain that extra edge. Personal drama, relationships and the like, may be offered up for judgment by the arbiters of the Game.

I have been an avid player of the U of C game. I have told my share of harrowing schedules and mind-numbing to-do lists. And I have found the game helpful. There is a feeling of camaraderie as well as competition. No one wins in the end, everyone recognizes that. There is no prize for being the most miserable. But, like in a support group, hearing how other people are facing challenges makes your own seem easier to overcome. Yes, I may have two papers this week, plus a problem set, a midterm, and a couple-hundred pages of reading to do, but how bad is that really, in the great assignment notebook of life? At the very least I know I am not alone, that, though I may be holed up in a cubicle in the Reg unable to see any of my peers, I will know they are there too, similarly cut off.