Student unintentionally creates safe space, "Existential Crisis" event outside Park Library
Rockford Senior Evan Wittenbach leads the attendees of the Existential Crisis outside Park Library in a scream on Sept. 15.
About 85 students gathered on the East lawn outside the Charles V. Park Library at 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, for an "Existential Crisis" organized by a Central Michigan University student.
Rockford senior Evan Wittenbach thought it would be a simple form of entertainment to imitate the event-oriented memes he had seen on Facebook that were advertising existential crises in major cities across the country.
These similar events have been advertised on Facebook pages in Bowling Green, Ky., Detroit, Mich. and Indianapolis, Ind.
'Existential' is defined by Dictionary.com as "pertaining to existence," where as 'Crisis' is defined as either a "condition of instability," or "a dramatic (...) upheaval in a person's life." Therefore, an 'existential crisis' is an uncertain time when one is questioning the validity of existence or what reality is.
"I thought, 'that's kind of funny, maybe I'll make one for here,'" Wittenbach said.
Within a week of the creation of "Have an existential crisis at Fabiano Botanical Garden" as a Facebook event, the page had been shared 53 times, 544 people were interested in attending and 227 people marked that they were planning to attend.
In response to the attention the event garnered, Wittenbach says he was mostly surprised, and that he was thankful that what started as a meme turned into a healing event.
Wittenbach began the event by welcoming all in attendance and sharing concerns regarding the ability of the education system in allowing college students to succeed in their proposed careers.
The group was urged to participate in one collective scream, and the event was turned over to individuals willing to share their own woes and perspectives. Topics ranged from one attendee's cheating ex-girlfriend to multiple Music Education majors citing that they were taking eight classes for only 14 credit hours.
Seven individuals shared poems, one reciting Edgar Allan Poe, another sharing an original piece.
Passersby would occasionally be called over to participate in the event and were welcomed by cheerily sarcastic chants of "One of us!" and rhythmic clapping.
Most stories were of a lighthearted nature, specifying a lack of money, motivation and time. Others, however, dug deeper into issues, such as depression and wondering why humans are here.
Mt. Clemens sophomore Sara Byks spoke out regarding the normalization of unhealthy coping mechanisms, saying "I've heard conversations where someone will say, "I wanna die," and the next person will be like, "Oh, same.
She said the issue is that students don't talk about their stressors.
"Everyone (says) they're fine, when in reality, it's like that meme where everything is on fire. Everything is not fine, and we need to talk about that." Byks said.
