Today I went to my first lecture of Archeology 344 (Primate behaviour). First lectures are not normally eventful situations, with the exception of the one a few years ago that ended up with me in an ambulance headed towards the hospital, but that story is already on record here. Today, was also an event, although not as dramatically so. The prof decided that we should all introduce each other to the class, which is something that I have previously only seen in tutorials. Some people immediately fled. Introducing yourself to those who don’t care is not a particularly interesting endeavor either in tutorial, or a lecture with approximately 80 people in it. How many times can you hear : “My name is **** and I am a *th year student, my major is ***** and I took this course because………” without being disinterested. So I get up there. “My name is Mike”, which was immediately followed by a metallic crash, followed by audible expletives in my direction from the girl next to me, and then the one in front of me (though not as audible). It seems that I managed to knock over the coffee of the person next to me, dumping it in her lap, all over my feet, and splashing it onto the girl ahead of her. The first thing I notices was the classes reaction, and then remembered that coffee is very hot. Very hot. I need not point out that this really, really, sucked.
Perhaps now is an appropriate time to point out that the number one fear that people report is public speaking. The second is death. So at a funeral, we would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.