“Randomly Choose a Place On The World Map Every Day and..”

My literature professor asked me to do this on the very first day of my graduate class. But why?

Here I am, already traveling solo having learnt through my literature classes that traveling is learning.

The first time I walked into my literature professor’s class, she said something entirely unexpected.

“Every day,” she said, scanning the room with a humble smile, “I want each of you to pick a random place on the world map. Read about it for at least 2 minutes. Learn something. Anything. And then move on to another place the next day.”

The room fell silent. What did this have to do with literature?

Speaking with a senior of mine later, I learnt that she does this with each one of her batches. In that case, it can’t be a random game but something important. So why does she do it?

I won’t lie — I only kept up with the exercise for about three days before I got distracted with assignments and life. But the lesson stayed with me forever.

I am writing this because I wanted to share this high-value lesson with all those who haven’t been to her class (or any literature class for that matter!).

Still confused, we listened as she explained. “There are many ‘values’ humans must uphold but the most important one, according to me, is ‘Empathy’.”