Raise Your Hands

I sit quietly at the desk, paying attention as best I can. Then, the rhythmic, sleep inducing lecturing of the professor is cut off. I hear the screech. The sound that can only be produced by one of the most annoying classmates I have ever had.

She has just interrupted Dr. Jones, and it isn't nearly the first time. I put my face into my hands and start pulling my hair.

Not only is her voice and overall presentation extremely annoying (she is a cross between Jabba the Hut and a turtle with curly hair and a bad overbite that occasionally sounds like it is from MinneSOTA) , but when she opens her mouth, she has absolutely nothing intelligent or useful to say. And Dr. Jones is such a nice guy he doesn't do anything about it. He stops what he is saying, listens attentively, and nicely remarks, " Hmm, that's really smart."

But it wasn't smart.

On top of the aggravation this classmate already causes me, Dr. Jones is one of my favorite professors. When he gets interrupted I feel personally insulted because I have been briefly denied the chance to hear what he has to say. Sure, he can probably pick up from where he started after someone interrupts with something dumb, but what if the comment was so mind numbing he forgets what he was saying? Then we all have been robbed.

Another similar offense, though not nearly as atrocious, is speaking without raising your hand during a period where the class is supposed to be answering a question. I have personally experienced this and have seen it happen to others many times. The person raises their hand to answer the question, Dr. Jones is about to call on them, and then someone speaks out randomly. Oftentimes, they have just answered the exact way you wanted to. Dr. Jones doesn't stop the person who talks out of turn, then goes to the hand raiser and all they can say is, "that's what I was going to say."

The hand raiser now looks unoriginal and useless, while the speaker outer gets lavished with praise.

Life isn't fair. The only way for a hand raiser to truly win in this situation is to keep fighting. Raise that hand. Wait for your turn. Be a member of society. Your time will come, believe me.

It is going to be a tough fight for us. America follows with reckless abandon those who interrupt. How many times have you been watching an interview on Oprah, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dr. Phil or any show of the like and the guest being interviewed was rudely spoken over? How about every episode.

It is very annoying when you want to hear the person say something and Oprah stops them to say, "See, I've always felt that way too because I think I'm a spiritual leader for America and I deserve to be heard every waking second."

Then she does a Vanna White motion to her sweater, "And I have large breasts."

The audience claps.

How will we ever escape all these bombastic big shots?

The truth is, we can't. My advice would be to just ignore the conceited jerks who value their own thoughts and opinions over others and try to enjoy whatever situation you may be in.

Next time I'm in class with Dr. Jones, I'm not going to listen to the interrupters. I will be blissfully ignorant of them. I will simply sit through class and wait for Dr. Jones to say, "You guys did a great job today, see you next week."

Then I will say quietly to myself, "Okey dokey, Dr. Jones! Hold on to your potatoes!"