"Listen, really listen...you will learn more by listening & watching carefully. Then you will know if you can give useful advice or if they are just needing someone to talk to, to share a feeling or a thought they need to work through or let go of.
When a person is talking to you think only of what they are saying, not what your answer will be, or where you need to go, or what will be for dinner.
Maybe they are just asking for a hug. Maybe they just need to feel that they are more important than everything else - right now!
There will come a time when you will need these things- having friends + family can help you get through anything.
Our lives go by much too quickly. The more you focus on your day & the events in it the more you will have to remember the little things that add time to your life will not be as easily forgotten.
And the people who have had so much to add to your life will not be either!"
Age: 57
Postmark: Washington (state)
This week...let's think about a time when you were NOT paying attention, as the card suggests.
Interpret this any way you want...
Scavenger hunts can be very exciting, fun, and adventurous especially when you win. However, all that fun and excitement can quickly end if you fail to pay attention to where you’re driving. Since scavenger hunts are time dependent, you may feel that you’re in a rush to get everything done. However, one simple mistake can cost your team some valuable time, which can eventually lead to losing the game.
ReplyDeleteOne of the items on the scavenger hunt list was getting an application from the local bowling alley. I was the one driving because I borrowed my dad’s car which was big enough to hold a shopping cart, another item on the list. I park in the bowling alley parking lot and one of my teammates, Carla, got out to go ask for an application. While she was inside the rest of the team including myself began skimming through the list and coming up with a game plan of how we were going to win. It seemed that we were already ahead because we had less than twenty items left and over an hour to obtain them. Carla ran back to the car with the prize possession, an application. I put the car in reverse and took my foot of the brake. Then, I grabbed the scavenger hunt list to figure out what the next destination was. Suddenly I hear one of my teammates scream, “TANZIR!” This was followed by a bang and me slamming on the brakes.
It was too late. I already hit the parked car behind me, not realizing that my car was still in reverse and my foot was off the brake. I immediately put the car in drive and pulled back into the parking spot. I was afraid to see what the outcome was. At first I thought it would be a good idea to drive away and pull over somewhere else to see if my dad’s car had any damage. However, I knew that if I did that karma would come back at me. Therefore, I decided to get out of my car and first observe how much damage the minivan behind me had. Walking around the whole car, there was not a scratch in site. I, also, walked around the back of my dad’s car and did not see a single mark from the incident. At that moment, I was relieved and got back in the car and headed toward my friend’s house, where judging would take place. We decided not to search for any more items on the list since we were shaken up from the incident at the bowling alley.
When we arrived to my friend’s house, the four of us began to unload my trunk. That’s when I heard my teammate, Tammy say “Oh my God, Tanzir.” I walked over to her and seen a huge dent in the back of my dad’s vehicle. I probably missed the dent at the bowling alley because it was so dark outside. I didn’t know what to do, so I called my friend George, “the mechanic.” He told me to come right over and so I did leaving my friends there with all the items we obtained. George brought out a blow-dryer and I looked at him confused. Ten minutes later after holding the dryer on top of the dent, the dent suddenly popped out. I thanked George a million times and still couldn’t understand how a blow dryer can remove dents. However, without asking questions I dropped the car off at my house and went back to my friend’s house. The only good part of that night was that my team ended up winning the scavenger hunt, even with the troubles we faced. Also, my dad never found out that his car was in a little “fender bender” that night. However, I did learn that it is crucial to always pay attention when operating a motor vehicle.
If I had to think of a time when I was not really paying attention to life in general, it would be this entire school year. During this school year so far, my life has been a culmination of tons of assignments for class. All that I focused on was when the next due date was. I still have not really focused on my actual day to day activities. All of my time is spent going over a virtual checklist in my head, making sure that I have finished all of my tasks. The perfect example of this is these discussions every week. Every week I think about what is due, like these discussions every Friday. Not every week is exactly the same, some of them have exams, others have more lab reports than the previous, but they are still exactly the same in my head. Every day is just a due date.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this has been true for me for most of my teenage life. Since middle school, my life has been a blur of due dates. It’s sad to say that I have not really paid attention to my day to day life other than school. The only time I really have focused on day to day activities was during the summer. That ended though, the summer after my junior year of high school. This was because I got a job and most of what I focused on was the work for the week. This summer after my freshman year of college will be my last free summer. This is because I will go to school or work year round for the next four years due to the mechanical engineering co-op program I am in. So I plan to spend this summer just focusing on day to day in the moment rather than the future since it will be my last chance to do that.
Prior to entering middle school I had been a soccer player since I was five years old. I had always been a forward. I can remember one specific game when I my team was losing by a significant amount of goals. The ball was rarely on my side of the field since the other team’s offense was constantly scoring. About halfway through the game I began to get bored. Due to my young age I started to day dream and pay less attention to what was going on in the game. All of a sudden I fell over, feeling as I was hit by a truck. Comparatively, the kid was a truck to me. Apparently the ball had ended up back on my side of the field and an opposing defender ran into me to get the ball. The kid was kind enough to help me enough, but his hit definitely taught me to pay attention no matter how boring the game is. Oddly enough, the player who hit me turned out to be one of my best friends later in life.
ReplyDeleteNick, I had lots of these "zone out" moments as a kid...the most embarrassing during a Little League game (I can't remember what it was "for" but I know it was important - playoffs?) when I was playing third base and COMPLETELY spaced...kid tried to steal 3rd, I didn't even move to cover the bag...ball sailed into left field and we lost. I don't remember many of the details but I do remember being at the Phillies game afterward, still in my uniform, and my Dad never said a word about what happened. Maybe he was embarrassed, but more likely he was just being nice and "adult" and keeping things in perspective.
DeleteWhen I first started working at my old job, a fine dining restaurant, the owner gave me specific instructions on how the table was set. Little did I know, after he told me what to do he was leaving for 3 hours and expected I set it up before the party arrive. Well since I wasn't paying attention to a word he was saying (no I wasn't under the influence, just had zero motivation that day), I had no clue how the dining room was supposed to be set up. I realized I had to call him and let him know I didn't know what to do, and he laughed when I told him I had no idea what he said before. I learned my lesson that its always worth it to listen because you never know how important it is.
ReplyDeleteThere have been plenty of times when I was not paying attention and I should have been: In class, listening to my parents while playing video games, etc. The time that most vividly comes to mind is when my friends and I were driving back from a day Long Beach Island. It was nearly midnight (when I said I would be home by midnight) as we speed though the lovely state of New Jersey towards our hometown in eastern Pennsylvania. I was driving my friends 1989 Oldsmobile with the classic, padded bench seat up front. At least we could connect the iPod via cassette player! My friend and the owner of the car, we’ll call him Kyle, was asleep in the back seat. My other friend, “Dan”, was in his own world next to me. I wanted to change the song. When I did, the world around me changed, and I failed to adapt. The speed limit changed from 55 to 40 because we had entered a commercial area. I was going 60. I was told this by a police officer once we had both pulled over to the shoulder.
ReplyDeleteI could understand his position: we had out-of-state plates, we were speeding, and it was 12:30 on a Thursday. He approached my window, and I had my license ready, but was fumbling for the registration (it wasn’t my car). Kyle was slowly waking up and realizing the situation, but was still out of it. The officer asks me whose car it is, I point to the back seat and say, “It’s his, but he was tired so I’m driving.” He walks around to the back right of the car and tells Kyle to put both of his hands on the seat ahead of him. I laughed a little to my self: Kyle was probably wondering if this was a dream.
Everything checked out so we went on our way. I drove the speed limit so it took a little longer than expected to get home, but better safe than sorry. A speeding ticket is not a good way to end a fun day, let alone two tickets. Everyone must pay attention on the road, and I’m lucky that no one got hurt.
There have been numerous times when I have been approached and I failed to concentrate and comprehend exactly what the person was saying. Usually, this happens with my mom, but this time, I will write about my friend. In this case, my friend, Taylor, came to my room in the afternoon one day. She started telling me about her weekend. She told me she finally found someone worth her time. She described his physical characteristics, ethnicity, where he went to school, and his personality. She told me she loved how he played soccer and how he was such a polite and mature person. Because she met him at a social event at night on the weekend, she told me her friends were with her. While she was talking to him, she told me Patty, one of our friends, was acting very out of manner and obnoxious. She told me Patty was being extremely rude, embarrassing, and asking absurd questions to the guy Taylor was talking to. The guy Taylor met thought Patty and Taylor were best friends; therefore, eventually he said, "It was nice to meet you. I'll see you around" and he left. Taylor was really upset because after so long, she had finally met someone worth her time.
ReplyDeleteI felt bad for her and since Patty does have the reputation to do such things, I told Taylor to not worry and I told her to be careful with who she chose to go out with because some girls like that would end up in uncomfortable and rude situations. Taylor agreed and told me that was the last time she would ever go out with "that girl". My roommate and I agreed and we all started gossiping sadly. Before I knew it, I said Patty's name and Taylor asked me why I said her name. I said, "That's who we're talking about..." She said, "No we aren't. I thought we were talking about Lauren." I froze. I did not know what to do. Taylor asked me if I thought we were talking about Patty the whole time and I said "Yeah." It was so awkward. She was closer to Patty at the time, so when she understood what I was saying about her, we both felt bad and uncomfortable.
I learned my lesson there. I have to focus on names more and not on painting my nails. This whole situation happened while I was doing my nails and I do not know how, but I swear I heard Patty instead of Lauren. Overall, maybe all Taylor needed to do was vent. I guess my roommate and I should not have added to the conversation as much as we did to avoid the awkwardness!
At the end of this past winter break, I was eager to get back to Drexel. I planned to head back the first day housing reopened to hang out with my friends. I thought that my family was in on this plan too. We had tentatively laid out an itinerary two weeks before. On Saturday, my younger brother was to drive me and my luggage into the city, while my older brother and father helped my grandmother move into her new apartment. Apparently, over the two weeks between talking about it and it actually happening, the plan had changed. My family actually planned on helping my grandma all day Saturday, and counted me in for it. I would go back Sunday. Oblivious to the plan, I slept in on Saturday and ignored my father when he tried to wake me up. I had no idea why he was disturbing my slumber, as I had only been asleep for 4 hours and was extremely groggy and ignorant of the real plan. Anyway, when I awoke for real a few hours later, I had more than a few angry text messages. “Why are you ducking out of work Andy? You’re such a jerk sometimes.” I was very confused and annoyed that I didn’t get to go back to school that day. Later that night, my dad ended up taking me back. It was an awkward ride, because he was fairly pissed. If I had paid ANY sort of attention to the plan – the plan that was being made around my own winter break – I would have realized that it was really never the plan to take me back Saturday afternoon. Because I was unaware of what I was going on around me, I was punished by looking like a fool.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I find myself not paying attention numerous amounts of times throughout my day. This most frequently occurs when I am listening to someone who I do not really care much about what that person has to say. For example, whenever my mother is talking to me, I tone her out and just nod my head at certain points while saying, “yea.” The reason I do this is because my mother and I frequently get into serious disputes, and her reasons for arguing are normally absurd. Also, as I grew up and matured into a young adult, I realized most of the things my mother had told me, were based on her outlook on life. My mother is very bigoted and she believes that she is always correct, about everything. So after being aware of this, I realized that a lot of the things my mother told me were not true. Now whenever my mother tries to share her opinion with me, I usually just say that I agree without even hearing what she has to say.
ReplyDeleteA few months ago, I learned that sometimes it is important to listen to what a person has to say to you, even if you think the person has no clue what they are talking about. I was getting ready to go on a date with a girl I had met a few weeks before, when my mother walked into my room to give me some advice. I immediately thought she had no idea about how dates go nowadays, so I just toned her out and acted as if I was focusing on what she had to tell me. A few minutes passed and as I was walking out the door my mother shouted to me that I should bring a jacket. I just blew her off because I was not planning on going outside with this girl. My plan was to take the girl to a movie, get ice cream at Friendly’s with her, then head home. Also, even though the sky was dark and cloudy, the weatherman said there was only a ten percent chance of precipitation. So I hopped in my car without any thoughts of anything possibly going wrong. Everything was going according to plan that night. I picked up the girl, we talked and laughed as we drove to the movies, and we both enjoyed the movie. However, while on our way to get ice cream at Friendly’s, I attempted to pass on car that was turning by driving on the shoulder. Unfortunately, I was too far over and my car fell into a ditch. My car was completely stuck and a lot of smoke was coming from the hood of the car. My date and I immediately got out of the car and I called my father to call a towing company and to come pick us up. We were very far from where I lived so my father took a very long time to reach us. As my date and I were waiting, it began to downpour. Also, it was around 10:45PM and it was in the middle of October. I was freezing and soaked and the entire time I waited for my father, all I could think about were those words that my mother had told me as I was leaving. To this day I never leave my house without a jacket and I always make sure I at least listen to what my mother has to say before deciding whether or not what she said is complete nonsense.
More often than not I am very attentive, however when going on a job interview that I wasn't interested in, I had a tendency to zone out. I met with the HR rep where he told be basics about what the company did and who I would be interviewing with. I interviewed with three different people who basically told me the same information about the company. All of the jobs were pretty similar expect for their location in the plant. After responding to their questions and asking some of my own I was brought back to the HR rep. I expected him to thank me for coming, give me a handshake and show me out. When he asked me to sit down I knew I was in trouble. He asked me to go through the interviews with each person and tell me what I had learned. I paused for a minute and tried to remember what had happened. I started making stuff up and elaborating on small details that I Remembered like a bunch of reports stapled to a cork board. Somehow I ended up pulling it off and was even offered the job! I do wish that I had paid attention though, it would have made me feel like less of a fool.
ReplyDeleteThere have been many painful experiences in my life caused by my not paying attention. Most of them have been on sports fields whether they are softball (getting hit with a bat), handball (nosebleed and stomach shot), soccer (failed head-butt attempts) or field hockey. For whatever reason, I always volunteer myself for what most people consider to be the most dangerous positions on the field such as catcher and goalie. That is completely stupid of me because I am incredibly skittish and easily injured. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteOne day at field hockey practice last fall, I was training a younger goalie. She was having a difficult time because she was a bit slow and not very aggressive. Later on in the season, I eventually gave up on her. Unfortunately, while I was still attempting to make her into a goalie, another teammate wanted to shoot on me. This other teammate was Karlee, one of our best players. She eventually went on to play at college. Karlee has a mean backswing and a beautiful slap shot which leads me into my story.
I was teaching Erica, my goalie protégée, about angles when Karlee approached the circle. She must have thought that we made eye contact or that I at least knew she was there because she seemed shocked that I did not expect her to hit the ball at me. Apparently, she yelled my name, lifted the ball into the air and then proceeded to baseball swing at the ball. Unfortunately for me, I turned around when she called my name. As I turned I saw the ball coming at me and I managed to move a bit out of the way. However, moving out of the way to the left meant that I moved my padded body away and my unpadded right arm into the ball’s path. Getting hit with a Karlee-hit hockey ball hurt worse than anything I had ever felt before.
Karlee left her mark when she taught me to pay attention. I had a beautiful donut bruise on my right forearm for weeks. It was raised in a washer-shape with an indent in the middle. The entire formation was a rich purple. I learned my lesson the hard way, but for the rest of the season I paid very good attention while I was standing in goal.
I had a hermit crab. I forget what his name was. It was something stupid. We always named our pets something stupid, because my sister enjoyed doing so. I, the younger, rarely had a chance to engage in the ritual of naming, but I was a content child, and never complained. We had Joe, Moe, Schmo, and Fred the fishes, and later Gregor McGregor the turtle. Whatever the hermit crab's name was, it was along those lines. I'll just call him Hermes, but I think it was actually Merpy or Derpy or something.
ReplyDeleteHermes was very inactive. He liked to crawl into his shell and pretend to be a rock. He was very good at this. Sometimes, we only knew he was alive because he would randomly change positions in his container after a couple of days. We didn't know if he ate. We didn't know if he drank. We only knew that he was probably the most boring pet ever in the history of the world -- even more boring than Joe, Moe, Schmo, Fred, AND Gregor McGregor combined.
We played with Hermes by letting him out of his cage and walk around the carpet. This was the time he was most active. He would crawl away (slowly), and we would take him back to the relative safety under our watchful eyes. We did this many times. Hermes was actually interesting when he was moving!
It should seem obvious to you where this is going. Indeed, I lost Hermes one day. I had been playing with him… then I got bored and started playing a video game. I figured he would stay by my side and I could just keep an eye on him. Then, mother called for lunch, and well, I didn’t pay attention in the least to the small rock-like object moving away from the television.
When I returned, I returned to my video game. Hermes was still forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind – or so the saying goes. It was true. I had completely lost focus of what I had been doing prior… but can you truly blame me?! I was only thirteen at the time, with the attention span of a preteen.
When my attention snapped to the empty cage that Hermes once occupied, I felt a finger of dread slip through me. Hermes might’ve been one of the most boring dudes in the universe, but he was still my responsibility and he was nowhere to be found. Violent images of my massive rocky friend getting caught in a stray spider’s web and eaten by some vicious beast popped into my mind. I had to find him or he would likely die! Die! Die! (I was a pretty dramatic kid, if you didn’t pick this up by now.)
I used all my superior searching technique without alerting my parents that I had lost my only real responsibility in the household. I enlisted my sister, and together we engaged search patterns that a professional rescue team would be proud of.
We eventually found Hermes, though it was not because of our rescuing prowess. No, we were instead notified of his location via a scream from the Mother, who found Hermes quite creepy, especially when he was hanging out next to the toilet. I was glad to have found him, but she certainly was not! The consequence of my lack of attention to Hermes was a ridiculously long bout of anxiety, and also a stern scolding accompanied by grounding for a week.
I certainly learned my lesson!
About a year ago to this day, my Opa (that’s Grandpa in German) passed away after becoming suddenly ill in later January 2011. All throughout my life, my Oma (Grandma) and Opa have been an integral part of my childhood. I spent many weekends, and eventually even entire summers, at their house. Almost every day I was there, my Opa had a story to tell me. Often times, it was the same story I had already heard numerous times. But every time I sat with him underneath the shade of his big maple tree in the backyard, I would let him tell me those same tales once again. Sometimes he would even surprise me with a new tale.
ReplyDeleteAs you listened to his vivid details and saw the expressions on his face, you could tell how important those stories were to him and just how much it meant for him to share them with his grandkids, like me. His memory was fantastic as he relived his younger years in both Germany and in America. I learned about his childhood living on his parent’s farm and how he had to go off to war at the age of 17, months after his baby brother was born. I learned about how he found his family again after the war and his journey to America, where he first worked on a farm in Canada for room and board. He told me about how he came to Allentown and the first time he danced with my Oma at the local german club. He told me about how he bought his house incomplete and worked day and night adding floors, doorways, and grass to make it his home. I even learned about his soccer playing days while he sat in his chair and kicked a ball back and forth with me. While I can recall so many of the tales he told me since I was little, I see now how little I had paid attention to all the details. I always told myself I would record his storied at one point, knowing one day Opa would not be around anymore. But I never thought I would lose him so soon and so suddenly.
Opa always jokingly said to me “You tell your grandkids about your old grandfather one day.” I smiled back at him every time and promised him I would. And one day I will. Yet looking back to all of those times sitting beneath his beloved tree, listening to Opa tell me over and over again about the journey of his life, I realize I did not always give him my full attention. While I wish I had really taken in every detail of his extraordinary tales, I still hold on to every memory I had with him and every story that made my Opa as great as he was.
There have been a few times where i haven't always been paying attention. One instance that stands out to me is, sophomore year of high school. I was in chemistry class and we were going over how to do a lab. I was sitting in the middle of the room and I just started day dreaming and any focus I had went out the window for a good ten minutes. My teacher was done explaining what we were supposed to do and I literally had no clue where to begin with the lab. I ended up not being able to finish the lab and having to re-due it later in the week. After that day I learned that I should really pay more attention when teachers are explaining things and to try not to day dream in class anymore.
ReplyDeleteI myself am rather attentive, but those around me could use some practice, or manners. This weekend I went to a couple concerts with my cousins, and anytime we were in the hotel they'd be talking about their past experiences and how much fun they'd had and all they'd been through. I would get a story in here and there but I was very frequently over-talked or out-shouted by one of the two. I began talking about our septa plans for getting around the next day, a very important part of the next day. Neither of them heard me, they were too busy yelling at each other to comprehend the plan. I must have said it twelve times, louder every time. After the second concert they were completely lost as to where to go, and I had to go a very different way. I had to move to the not quiet car of the train to give them directions home. I decided next time I'll just write it down for them.
ReplyDeleteOne time I highschool I started day dreaming for a split second and my teacher decided to call on me then and usually teachers just want you to admit you weren't paying attention and they won't make you answer the question but this time this sub sat there and made me tell her what she was just talking about when I had no clue what she was talking about what-so-ever -__-
ReplyDeletePerhaps the most regrettable time I didn’t pay attention was when I was just a sophomore in high school. This was around the time when I got my license and I was always trying to drive whenever I could. One day when I was driving to work I was not paying too much attention to the road and instead paid attention to the radio. I thought I had everything in control and was just turning the dial but when I looked up, I was quickly approaching a stopping car. I was able to avoid the car in the last second but my car ran a little off the road and a bunch of damage had been done to my car. My first and so far only car accident occurred simply because I was not paying attention for no longer than three seconds. No one was hurt and the car ended up okay but I always felt guilty about what had happened. Since then I have made a conscious effort to make sure I am always alert when I am driving and also not to care about such things as the radio while I’m driving. It can only take a second of not paying attention to seriously affect your life so it is important to stay alert at all times as best as you can.
ReplyDeleteA few days ago, I was walking along a sidewalk when I had a rather unusual experience. I came to a point where the sidewalk doubles as an apron for the approach of a parking lot. Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me to look for vehicles coming from this underused parking lot, as I was walking on sidewalk, and clearly, as a pedestrian, I have the right of way on the sidewalk. However, a vehicle was coming. At some point, I noticed not only that the vehicle was coming, but that it kept coming a bit closer than it ought. In fact, it appeared that the driver had no intentions of stopping for the pedestrian walking on sidewalk directly in front of her.
ReplyDeleteNow, I’ve been hit by cars before. (I could insert here a commentary on how the drivers are always of the female variety, and what that clearly indicates about female drivers in general, however, I shall refrain.) I bike a good bit, and it seems that drivers tend to forget some important laws of the road. For instance, while it is generally legal to make a right turn on red, one must come to a complete stop first.
Here, however, I was walking on sidewalk. As the car continued approaching, I soon came to the realization—as the front bumper is inches from my legs—that I was going to get hit. Rather than having my legs broken or being shoved to the ground and then run over, I elected instead to jump on the hood of the imposing vehicle, such that my rear could absorb the impact. After the thud of contact, the driver quickly noticed that there was suddenly someone plastered to her car and slammed on the brakes, flinging me back off the front of her car. She had not been going particularly fast, so I was fortunately able to stand up, brush myself off, and watch the driver’s face turn to one of terror as she realized she had just struck a pedestrian with her car. I just stood there for a moment, looking at her, both of us in shock, I suppose, that we had not seen this incident pending and avoided its occurrence. As I was unhurt and had things to do with my day, I recollected myself, and proceeded on my way.
In an orchestra rehearsal we were focusing on one spot when you have the tendency to be admired by what is playing that you do not realize you are supposed to come in. I have done that more than once to make a late entrance we are so focused on what is being played and when it sounds so good you just have to take in the moment but then you are not paying attention to your task and miss the entrance.
ReplyDeleteDuring my Seminar class in the summer, our teacher was giving a boring lecture so I decided to get on my phone and not pay attention to class. The next I knew everyone was putting their notebooks away and the teacher was passing out a paper, I put my stuff away thinking it was time to leave and the teacher was giving out homework or something. But no, it was a pop quiz on what the teacher just lectured, I wanted to slap myself. I had to guess on all of the answers, got a 0/20 and that's the last time I didn't pay attention in class.
ReplyDeleteI literally just lost my attention while reading for my Biology exam. So I pretty much mechanically read ten pages for the past fifteen minutes. I didn't even pick out a main idea or topic. My loss of attention brings me to writing this post. I thought that taking a break from the science world would give me a clear mind and slate. Your attention span is never that long. You always need some time and something to do to rejuvenate your mind. This can be walking, taking a break to eat, or playing sudoku. Hopefully, this will work.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has those days when they have so much on their mind that decides to consume their day. I had one of these days and it caused me to not pay attention during an instructional explanation from a teacher. This happened during my junior year of high school in my Design for Glass elective class. The teacher was explaining how to use and handle the glass, the glass cutters, and the soldering iron, and the basics of the class. This description was very detailed and thorough for our understanding and safety in the class. The only problem is that my mind was in a complete different place focusing on the day’s agenda. I was not paying attention what so ever to the instructions and procedures my teacher was telling to the class. In the middle of her discussion I let out the most obnoxious sigh. She immediately stopped mid-sentence and asked if I had something to share since I decided to interrupt the class. As soon as she addressed me I was taken back. I did not realize that my sign was said out loud and could not take it back. I knew my teacher was not happy with me and I tried to explain why the sign happened but I knew her mind was made up. After the attention was off of me and back onto the teacher I felt horrible about my actions. I guess that’s what you get for not paying attention in class.
ReplyDeleteAt times, I zone out and lose consciousness of the real world around me. I think everyone gets these moments every once in a while, and it is important to do so because I feel that those are the times that I am in my deepest thinking. Sometimes it may not be a good time to "zone out", such as during the instruction period of a detailed class assignment. This happened to me in the ninth grade when the teacher was going over the procedure to do a science lab final, each on our own. I had come back into reality at about 15 seconds to go before my class started the assignment. I felt dumb, I knew that I couldn't talk to any classmates but I tried to do so anyway as well as peek at their experiments to get an idea for the lab. I knew what I had to do, even though I knew it would not be a good time. I approached the teacher two minutes into the experiment; she had probably noticed I was "zoned out" during instructions and most likely knew I'd be asking for directions again by the look on her face. I asked her as politely as I could, but she made a spectacle out of me in front of my classmates. It was very embarrassing and I learned from this to always pay attention during directions.
ReplyDelete