Solution Series: The Setup

When I was a child, I thought as a child. I spake as a child. I understood as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away childish things…when I was a child…put away childish things…when I became a man…put away childish things…away childish things….childish things…I became a man….


She was supposed to be done five minutes ago, but Dr. Johnson never let them on out of class on time; so she wasn’t surprised. Besides, her thoughts were elsewhere. She could no longer be distracted by the aroma of musk and chalk that hovered over Douglass Hall like the ghosts of athletic lockerooms past. The end of the semester was steadily approaching, and the small fliers with information about summer programs and internships, which she passed every day, now seemed to be billboards—gigantic signs foretelling a summer full of wasted time. These were the thoughts of Gene Yus as she left macroeconomics and the voices called her.

“Gene”, said a faint and slightly nasal voice.
Gene said nothing as the hallowed voice escalated to an almost insistent clamor.
“Gene!”, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah”, “Yeah, I’m fine” said Gene as she shook herself out of mild trauma. “ I just need to get my life together. It’s almost April and I have no idea what I’m gonna do this summer. What are your plans, Rose?”

“Well, you remember the issues I had with my Spanish class last semester, right?”

“Ha! How can I forget? And, World Lit., and Psychology, and…

“I GET IT, GENE! Well, the point is I need to make up ground so I’ll probably go back home to Alexandria and take some summer classes to get caught up.”

“I’m sorry, Rose, but I can’t go back home this summer! I won’t last another summer sitting around seeing all that ridiculousness! The people we graduated with aren’t doing anything, and the kids there now are just getting worse! I can’t deal with that this summer. ” Gene said giving her usual Jeremiad.

“Yea, I know what you mean, but it might be different this summer. Besides, I told BT I’d help him with that thing he wants to do back home while we’re all there” , says Rose as she makes the innocent shrug of a kindergartner reluctant to reveal the culprit of a classmate’s mischievous act.

Slowly and distastefully, Gene shook her head. She was tired of reluctance. She didn’t care about culprits. She had no time for mischief. And, these were the facets of life that reminded her of BT.


In almost choreographic fashion, BT cut a corner and began walking down the hallway towards Gene and Rose, while he sternly gazed at the cover of a book in his hands. BT was an average-sized guy with smooth brown skin and the type of facial features that would either make you run the other way or pull you almost magnetically in his direction. But, BT had one main imperfection that bothered Gene. BT was a very smart young man, who only enjoyed one thing more than learning—showing off everything he learned.

He was not the same person she knew in high school. He used to be so lackadaisical, and he was so bent on fitting in; never did he try to stand out. He was the class clown of the honors classes. He thought he was cool. Then, they went off to Hughes College, and he changed.


BT came to college to study Business, but he changed his areas of study when he found a love for politics. He was always going on about movements, social change, and problems in society. In Gene’s eyes, BT was an idealistic know-it-all, who only woke up from his sleep to fall from reach of his dreams. In fact, she thought of him always to be asleep; dreaming. As he walked by, he did not disappoint Gene, cordially addressing her and Rose for a moment before again fixating his eyes on the book in his hands; Dreams of My Father. He was never in reality—always dreaming. He dreamed about people he didn’t even know and things that weren’t even possible. He was egotistical, naïve, and childish to do such things—constantly dreaming.

And, for some strange reason, Gene admired that about him.

OxyJon