Textual Studies

INT. CLASSROOM - DAY

Professor: Let's all take a look at today's text.

CLOSEUP - STUDENT'S SHEET
The page is blank except for a text message printed in large capital letters: WHERE R U?

Professor: There's so much to unpack here. In this deceptively simple statement, we have some of humanity's grandest themes. Who wants to start?
Student #1: It's a classic existentialist plea, a, a strangled voice crying out from the bottommost depths of the abyss.
Student #2: An open wound made fresh as an act of desperation.
Professor: Very good. Who else?
Student #3: But the use of the "U" implies familiarity. Despite the loneliness, despite the terrible rupture caused by the breakdown of authentic communication, there is still a connection felt.
Student #4: I suppose it's even possible these two people have never met.
Professor: Ah. You're assuming they're people, are you?
Class: Oooo...
Professor: Might this query be a prayer directed at an absent deity? A pained expression of spiritual doubt, cast upwards towards the heavens?
Student #1: Oh, and that would make perfect sense given yesterday's text, "OMG."
Class: Oooo...
Professor: Very good. Now I want you all to personally tackle this question. Think about it in the context of your own life journeys. Where are you? What is your state of being, what is your existential location, as it were, in relation to your hopes, your dreams, your fears? The assignment is due tomorrow by 5:00. As always, all responses must be 140 characters or less.