One of the worst feelings is when you think of something awesome and clever to say to someone, right after they leave the room.
That happened to me last week. I was giving a presentation in front of the class. I was nervous. My throat was dry, and my voice was cracking like I was a 14-year-old boy who just found out that he likes girls.
And someone starts talking rudely and laughing out loud in the back of the classroom, and keeps on doing it.
As you might have guessed, my presentation went horribly. I walked back to my desk, head down, embarrassed and extremely angry. As I walked out the classroom, it hit me. I should have walked right up to my interrupter and impolitely suggested that when someone else is giving a presentation in the middle of your class, maybe you should try to shut up.
That would have been awesome. Instead, I am doing something way more passive-aggressive: Writing a column about it while in my cave at the The State Press newsroom.
We need to have a conversation about classroom etiquette. We need to have the discussion, student to student. We are all on the same team here.
I do not care about the awesome party that you went to the last weekend at I Feela Thigh and all the awesome shots you did, and that awesome guy you met wearing that awesome polo.
I’m sure it was awesome. But it will just as cool to tell your friend after my presentation is over.
Here is a message to all students listening to one of their peers give a presentation: Shut up and listen. That’s all.
I do not care if you find my presentation boring. I do, too. Do you think I really care about the oil business in the old west?
I don’t, but I do care that you are breaking my focus.
For those of you who don't listen to my presentation but proceed to ask complicated open-ended questions after the presentation: You are not a great thinker just because you have a beard, wear clothes that cost 37 cents at Buffalo Exchange and pause a lot when you speak.
In the future, you just like to hear the sound of your own voice, do not use the question time after my presentation to hear it.
Everybody needs to lighten up. We all want to do the same thing. We just want to get through this class with a decent grade so it can fill our requirements. We are not going to solve world peace because of something you said in a 300-level English class.
And if you think you are, you may be taking yourself a little too seriously.
Reach the columnist at ehubbard@asu.edu or follow him at @AZsportsHub
