The Animal Cracker Experiment - News and Feature Writing

My professor handed me a box of crackers and told me to go out and give them away. Twelve packs of animal crackers. I knew it would be a disaster. If some random person walked up to me and offered me crackers, I'd want to know what drug they spiked them with. Much to my surprise, the process was smoother than I'd expected.

There were a lot of rejections. People had just eaten lunch. They weren't hungry. They didn't like animal crackers. No one accused me of being a psycho, so I count that as a victory.

Some people asked what my angle was, and I was honest. 

"It's for a class," I said as I handed over the pack of crackers.

Once a fellow mass communication major heard which professor it was, it made a lot more sense. In a way, she felt bad for me. I was walking up to strangers and offering them a snack like the teacher's assistant in a kindergarten classroom.

In a way, that worked in my favor. Some people took the crackers like I'd just committed some incredible act of kindness. Like a time machine had taken us all back to a simpler time. It was as if those little animal-shaped crackers were exactly what they needed to get them through the day and the week. I'm just glad I could be the one to offer the helping hand... technically it was my professor, because there's no other reason I would've been walking around campus with a box of crackers.

With five bags left after classes on Friday, I took the rest to church at 7:45 on Sunday morning. I just knew the tech team wouldn't leave me hanging and I was right. Most took them without questions, others wanted to know how much I was selling them for, and at the end of the morning we all had a good laugh about the snack.

There was even a debate about one of the crackers. Was it a monkey, rhino, or a buffalo? After a quick Siri session we determined there are bison crackers in those bags...

I still say it was a monkey.

The conclusion? Sometimes handing out snacks to complete strangers can actually be a grand adventure. Give it a try if you're feeling wild.