A simple mystery sounds like a contradictio in terminis, but it isn’t that mysterious. It’s merely an oxymoron. It’s about all the small things of which I never thought that I would want to know them. Thinking outside my own boundaries is one of my favorite pursuits, but they have to be fast and frugal. So, where most engineers suffer from flame fetishism, Erlenmeyer flask RSI or construction madness, I rather appreciate general ignorance, urban myths and cautious contradictions. For example did you know that the English Dyslexia Research Centre is situated in Reading? Or that kangaroos have three vaginas? But also that there are small elevators in Dutch double-decker trains, which were used for rail catering?

Now, during the exam weeks, I’m not allowed to produce such out of the box thoughts. Now I have to master the prescribed exam materials. Now my knowlegde that the ideal ratio of sand to water for making a sandcastle is 8 to 1 is useless. Sandcastles are temporary, grades are forever. Our mysteries during exam weeks are for example Calculus’ arithmetic assignments, of which we know that few beauties but a lot of nerds master them. That can hardly be labeled as mysterious, and is not part of an engineer’s dreams.

But don’t be ashamed that your concentration level drops below zero once in a while. These exams might be unlike the dreams you had, when you decided to visit the Netherlands. You wanted to solve actual mysteries, like Scooby-Doo at Engineering School. But now your stuck to solving exam material from the study indicator. So if you want to check-out Facebook or 9gag, you can! You’re just searching for mysteries. But if you really want to achieve your dreams, you will first have to pass that exam. So get back to work, now!