Orientation season is upon us and this one’s for all of us who dread the sentence: “Share a fun fact with everyone”. It is a stressful sentence, perhaps even unwelcome. You may have had thoughts such as, “Is there anything interesting about me?” and “Why isn’t my brain working today?” might start to whirl around your mind as you anxiously try to come up with a unique fun fact on the spot. There might also be some of us who simply do not have the mental capacity on the day of orientation itself to produce an interesting fun fact.
However, introductory orientation games are often useful for breaking the ice and facilitating bonding down the line; such games can become useful tools for yourself if you learn to harness them. In this article, we will share about how to master the art of preparing a fun fact — through that, we hope to alleviate some of your potential fears and anxieties when it comes to participating in any upcoming orientation camps!
- Engage with your most recent memories and/or emotions
Preparing a fun fact in advance might feel artificial and forced. So, instead, this hack could allow you to organically produce a unique fun fact about yourself that changes every time it is requested of you. It simply requires that you think back to things that you have done most recently — these could refer to a memorable event, or even a strong emotion that you have encountered. A possible frame of time for you to consider could be a week’s worth of memories, but it is ultimately up to how quickly you can recall a shareable memory.
Do not be too quick to judge yourself or minimise your own experiences, for this method could still produce highly interesting fun facts even if you do not feel like you have done anything notable in the past week. For instance, you might have been lounging at home for most of your days, indulging in an addicting show, which provides you with the illusion that you lack any interesting stories to share. However, a good storyteller would beg to differ.
Pick out the memory or emotion that stands out the most when you close your eyes and recall the events of the past week. This could be your anger — at the row of ants that started attacking your plate of chicken rice during one of your peaceful lunches at home. Or, perhaps, this is the memory of you happily engaging in one of your favourite hobbies: cooking with a good friend. Remember that while these experiences may seem mundane or trivial to you, they could in fact be highly relatable and refreshing for others to hear about.
- Leverage on being first/last to go
Being the first or the last to share can be pressurising. However, going in such an order can actually be beneficial!
Going first: No fear — share anything that comes to mind! Anything you say will be unique to the group, since no one else has introduced themselves yet. You could complete this in a breeze — everyone else would be too busy searching for a fun fact to judge whatever you say. Once done, you can just relax and hear what everyone else has to say!
Going last: You could leverage one of the fun facts that someone else has shared to come up with your own, drawing inspiration from their experiences to trigger your own memories. You could even repeat someone else’s fun fact– this coincidence could be something that facilitates greater bonding between the two of you!
- Play to your strengths (and weaknesses)
This method is very commonly used, even though its users may be unaware of it. Playing to your strengths essentially means to capitalise on something that you are good at, or a quality that you possess, to introduce yourself to the group. If you are a humorous person, you could lighten the mood by turning your fun fact into a joke. Or, perhaps you have a meaningful experience or achievement to briefly share. However, the bar for this ‘strength’ does not have to be that high. Your strength could be your unique background or situation, or an idiosyncratic talent, such as a body contortion that you are able to do (however, be prepared for others to eagerly request that you perform it for them).
On the other hand, you could use your awareness that you are embarrassingly bad at performing a certain task, or a story about how your failure to do something resulted in comical outcomes. An open acknowledgement of your weaknesses could resonate with others that relate to your struggles, and it will definitely be a refreshing form of release, both for yourself, and for those who identify with your fun fact.
- Look at your environment
Look around– what do you see? A leafy plant, a lonely cloud, a few plastic chairs– these unassuming things in your environment could help you generate a fun fact on the spot. While at first glance they just seem like everyday sights and objects, you could draw inspiration from these things around you to remember something interesting about yourself, or trigger a memory that might otherwise have not come to mind. E.g. Seeing a flimsy chair reminds you of when you fell from a chair when playing captain’s ball recently.
- The ‘F’ word
Indeed, ‘fun’ and ‘fact’ may not be the most useful ‘F’ word prompts. Hence, we recommend 5 other ‘F’ words that you can safely fall back on for inspiration, if all else fails:
| ‘F’ word | Possible Fun Fact Examples | |
| 1. | Family / Friends | “I have three other siblings” |
| 2. | Food | “I always order wanton noodle at hawker centres” |
| 3. | Fun | “Playing ‘Episode’ is my guilty pleasure” |
| 4. | False assumption | “People tend to think that I’m very energetic, but in reality, it’s because I drink a lot of coffee” |
| 5. | Fear | “I am highly claustrophobic” |
Hence, if you ever run out of ideas, these 5 ‘F’s should come to your rescue.
Remember that if you ever feel uncomfortable, or are simply not feeling it, do not feel pressured to share or do things that you do not wish to do. Your fun fact could simply be, “I’m tired today”, or, “I have no fun fact, I hope to become a more fun person soon” – these brutally honest facts, when delivered in a light-hearted manner, would be relatable and highly understandable. Ultimately, we just hope that you will be able to let go of your inhibitions and have fun getting to know your peers, whilst remaining respectful and caring towards one another. If you have any other tips or stories, share them on Instagram and tag us @nusresidentiallife!
