6.10.08

Concurrent Enrollment

I haven't posted in a few days.

There are a lot of reasons for that.

I guess it just feels like there are a million things rushing through my mind, and attempting to articulate all of them would be exhausting, and futile.

Currently, I am thinking about these things:
*British Lit History Homework
*My patriarchal blessing
*The Savior/The Atonement
*Relationships (Basically every single kind)
*Foreign Mail (I got three today)
*Probably a million things about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
*Emotions/Being driven by them
*Sticking up for myself
*Food
*Missionary work
*Warm toes
*Working out


I have Book of Mormon on Monday evenings for two hours. I accidentally took the returned missionary course, instead of the regular one. Consequently, my class is full of more-than-strange returned missionaries. I don't really mind, though; It makes for an amusing 2 hours--which is a blessing because often, 2 hour class periods can be painful. Anyway--today, a boy came into class a little late, and climbed over 5 people to sit in the seat next to me. This wouldn't have been that abnormal, had most of the easily-reached seats been taken. But, they weren't. In fact-- there were quite a few easily accessed seats open-- yet, he still chose the seat next to mine. As the boy crawled over me and the other students, I noticed that he smelled of maple syrup. As he awkwardly crashed into the seat, he caught his foot on a backpack in the row, and accidentally dumped the contents. The poor boy scrambled to pick up books, papers, pens, and other various school-related items; but was fairly unsuccessful. The boy who owned the backpack was annoyed to say the least, and my chair-neighbor was severely embarrassed. As he settled into his chair, his abnormally long arm protruded into my chair-space. I got increasingly annoyed as every time I tried to adjust myself, his elbow jabbed my left rib-cage. On top of this, he was a chronic nose-breather, which meant his regular breathing was quite loud. I tried to listen to the lecture, but my annoyance was building, and it was getting hard to focus. Not to mention, some idiot had turned on the Central Air, and was attempting to turn the entire JSB into a student/faculty-filled, walk-in freezer. 40 minutes into the lesson, I was cold, annoyed, and ready to leave. The clock is on the right hand side of the room, and I, of course, was watching nearly every second pass. As I was attempting to play tricks on my mind to make the time go faster, I felt someone shoving my arm. I looked to my left, and sure enough, it's maple-syrup kid. I glanced up at him as he motioned to the jacket in his left hand. He had been tapping me with it.
"Coat?" He asks, in a too-loud, inquisitive voice.
"Hmm?" I responded. (I hadn't understood what he said.)
"Coat!" He said, even louder.
"Oh, no, thank you," I replied, glancing around the room at the students glaring at us from all directions.
"I'm fine. Really. Thank you though."
Maple-syrup kid then shoved his coat as hard as he could back into his book bag. He kicked the kid's chair in front of him in the effort, and caused a raucous loud enough to wake a man from a coma. The entire classes' eyes beamed like lasers. They were irritated at his antics, and this being the case--the glaring became more intense.
At this point, I started taking notes. Then, I began to think:
No, this kid didn't have people skills. In fact, I don't think it would be inaccurate to dub him socially inept. He didn't realize the normal, innate understandings that most people have about social circumstances, in such places as a classroom. However, even though he couldn't spend five minutes in class without unintentionally calling attention to himself, this person did not fail to realized the fact that I was uncomfortable. No matter how awkward, or how hard it was for him to ask me if I wanted to borrow his coat, he did it anyway, because he was thinking more about me than he was about himself.
And then I just felt terrible.




It's a good thing I have Eddie to hug me when I'm sad at night.

3 comments:

Katie said...

This note made me feel kind of sad.. poor boy...

kendra and jeffrey said...

That story is funny.
Poor maple-syrup boy.

Unknown said...

that post made me feel cold.
i miss seeing you.