Monday, May 25, 2015

The things I remember from school

The other day I turned on the shower in my gym and I saw the curtain start to come towards me. Then I suddenly remembered something that I had learned in high school that I, to this day still remember... Due to the severe embarrassment I was caused by a teacher.

When I took physics in high school, I had the same teacher my very intelligent sister had. Unfortunately, our last name isn't very common and we look similar enough where it is pretty obvious that we're family. So, I was already nervous because there was an expectation there that I would pick up physics quickly and well. I really, really didn't. Honestly, after a whole year's worth of college level physics I still don't know/understand physics well. BUT there is one thing I do remember because that teacher asked a simple question in class one day... "When you take a shower does the curtain come towards you or does it get blown outward?" And then, she called on me to answer.

I answered incorrectly. Very incorrectly.

I guessed and said outward. I had to think about it, but I remember all my classmates looking at me, the teacher staring at me, and feeling panicked. So I tried to recall any memories of showering and realized that I had never really taken notice. When I answered incorrectly, the teacher rolled her eyes and shook her head. She said, "Anyone else?" And of course someone else said the correct answer and she emphatically said, "Yes, that's the correct answer."

I felt mortified. I already had a very bruised, very low self-confidence. On top of feeling like a fat, disgusting loser, I felt like a grade-A idiot. Someone who truly needed a dunce cap.

They say the most memorable memories are the negative ones. The insults, the trauma... and this one definitely. I will always remember Bernoulli's effect because of that mortifying moment in high school.