Why Survival of The Wittiest? You're asking this right now. It sounds like such a spin on the Darwinian concept of evolution, of natural selection. It should be the "survival of the fittest" but then where would I have fit into the equation? For the science folk out there, let's say you understand what I'm talking about -- let's assume you've touched on the basics of Darwinian Evolution via Natural Selection and let's say you understand the principles of such.
If we analogize this entire scenario, you'll see that the University of Toronto might be seen as population, the "gene pool". Then, we might be able to assume that natural selection is seen as the Life Science program (some may argue artificial selection, and you wouldn't be wrong, but let's simplify this explanation, shall we?). Without this program, the undergraduate population would maintain its steady growth and eventually explode; there would be no changes in distribution. With it, the population is pared down to a certain set of characteristics, of individuals, of those who have survived and have lived to tell their tale, to pass on their legacy, so forth and so on! Let's summarize this:
Natural Selection => Changes in Frequency Distributions of Population => Evolution
Life Sciences => Changes in the Frequency of the U of T Undergrad Pool => Mindset, Survival?
Now, by deduction, you've realized that being the fittest is difficult to define. Does this mean you're the smartest, the wisest, the fastest, the tallest, the funniest, the most hardworking, the most resilient? You can't really answer that without looking like a prat; it's rhetoric. The key to surviving the forces of natural selection at the University of Toronto revolve around an all-encompassing trait: wit. By definition, wit (n.) is defined by Merriam Webster as:
1. mental sharpness and inventiveness; keen intelligence : he does not lack perception or native wit.
• ( wits) the intelligence required for normal activity; basic human intelligence : he needed all his wits to figure out the way back.
2. a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humor : a player with a sharp tongue and a quick wit.
• a person who has such an aptitude : she is such a wit.
Now, why wit? Simple. If taken by the first definition, those with wit can definitely survive UofT based on their intelligence alone. If taken by the second, all else can survive dread with well-planted humour, quick-thinking and on-the-job creative problem solving. That's why living through UofT is more accurately dubbed, Survival of the Wittiest. Regardless of your IQ and your status, the key to surviving any program is how fast you think on your feet and how you fashion a situation to work in your favour. I might have said Survival of the Most Resourceful, but journalists wouldn't approve. My creative license wouldn't allow it either.
So what's this all got to do with the first post of a very long series of posts?
It's Lesson One To Surviving U of T (or any other university): be quick on your feet, learn to laugh at yourself, and change your attributions of negative events. Remember, there is a light at the end of that dark tunnel. And no, it's not a train.
