Thursday, April 10, 2008

Comment panic

So, I have this thing I do in class sometimes.

The professor is standing up there, talking about something important (like video games in libraries--it's a serious subject, people!) and then she asks a question of the class.

And the class just kind of sits there. Squirming.

And then I get this panicky feeling, like all the air is going out of the room and the only way to get air back into the room is to say something, so I do and...

I say something really dumb.

I, in fact, make a dumb comment. Or ask a stupid question (and no matter what your teachers tell you, they really do exist).

The worst part is that once you've started saying a dumb comment and you recognize it, you can't really stop; you just feel like you have to keep on going, as if you just keep talking somehow the words will twist themselves about and form the structure of a good comment, a smart comment, a wow, she's such a great library student comment.

And you end up in even more of a train wreck than where you started.

Ach, the agonies of studenthood.

(But really, I'm loving it.)

5 comments:

Kimberly Bluestocking said...

That happens to me all the time in Gospel Doctrine class. I feel like I have some profound insight to share, and the moment I open my mouth it degenerates into sheer drivel.

Lindsay said...

You and I should take a class together sometime because I do the very same thing. I even over-analyze what I did say and twist it into what I should have/meant to have said. Anyway, if you sat next to me in a class, we could maybe keep each other from making the dumb comments, or at least empathetically console each other/share what we actually wanted to say once we perfect it in our heads if we didn't stop ourselves in time. :)

Palomita said...

Yeah, even those of us who are not in school, and in Primary (and thus don't get to have the embarrassing Gospel Doctrine moments), still have those moments. It happens to me at Bookclub all the time. And then, I relive that moment over and over, and think "Why, oh, WHY do I feel the need to ever open my mouth?" Sigh...

emilysuze said...

If it makes you feel better, I have those moments in social settings. Especially lately, with meeting all sorts of new people out here. I would like to impress these people that Chris works with and make them think that I'm smart and funny and instead...garbbledigook comes out of my mouth.

I usually excuse myself to the restroom to get out of the awkward conversation that I started. Nice, right? lol

Awkward comment makers, unite! :)

Mama M said...

Oh my word! Does EVERYONE in the world feel like this? I've battled this for at least 50 of my almost 54 years on the planet, and I keep hoping that someday, somehow, it will all get better. And the truth is, I NEVER remember other people's comments as being stupid or sounding like drivel (a word that makes me think of verbal drool!)Yet I agonize, sometimes for weeks over something that has popped out of my mouth that I know the entire population of the state of Utah is condemning as absolute inanity.

Let's all agree to stop beating ourselves up over our comments in Sunday School or library class or on the phone with the dentist's office or having a student/teacher conference.

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!