Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Doesn't Play Well With Others

I know that's an over-used phrase, but appropriate when applied to me.

College is interesting. The people in class with me, what an amalgamation of people! For instance, there's a girl in class who talks too much but she doesn't know it. When the instructor says something rhetorical, such as, "Fractions, they are our friends, let's work on that problem." this girl says, "They're my friends!"

No one says what we are all thinking, and that is, and are they your only friends?

That was mean. Let me explain. Small talk with this girl looks like this: she begins to talk and then swivels her head completely around slowly and in a complete circle to see if she can make eye contact with anyone and therefore be engaged in "conversation". This conversation, I might add, is one-sided and requires of the second person only that they listen. The second person's comments are not necessary whatsoever. I know this, because I fell for this once and only once. The next time I heard her start to talk, I pointedly studied whatever paperwork happened to be in my hand at the time because who does this? She who does this, I dub thee, TalksToHearSelf.

One day, TalksToHearSelf's cell phone rang during class. She got up and walked out of the classroom to take the call, letting the phone RING THE ENTIRE WAY. Silence the ringer? That's for the well-socialized. So, she goes out into the hallway, and just then, someone opens the door and walks into the classroom. The entire class hears TalksToHearSelf say, "I AM in class, mom!!!"

You've got your assortment of advanced-agers, which I mean is anyone over 24. Then there's the young; the dew-skinned and fresh-eyed 18-year olds. Boys, girls, men, and women, all assembled to ponder the impenetrable world of trinomials and linear equations. And, by the way? There's a test on Thursday.

1 comment:

Bea said...

Here's one: one of my two T.A.s consistently arrives late for class. The first day back in January he apologized for this, explaining that he had forgotten which bus it was that he needed to take to arrive on time. Apparently the bus schedule is beyond the capabilities of an M.A. student in English, because he has yet to arrive on time this term. That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that after disrupting the class ten minutes into the lecture, he consistently sits down and cracks open a can of pop! Drink your pop on the bus, buddy.