Miscommunication

The emotional power of communication never ceases to amaze me. Once in a while you get those momentary glimpses into somebody else’s reality and you get a peek at who you are to them.

Here at SVC I need to take a certain amount of credits in the Social Science field to graduate. I’m not very fluent in the scientific method, and I lack key analytical skills in terms of numbers and percentages. However, when I was handed some sample midterm questions a little bit of me was excited that I was being asked to discuss the subject matter in the form of an essay.

When the test was handed back, he asked me and another student to wait so that he could talk to us after class. I received an A+, which doesn’t actually exist on paper because the ‘+’ doesn’t get figured into your GPA. Still, it was very rewarding to see that all of the studying and preparation was paid off. He told us that he doesn’t like to give compliments, but he liked the work we did on the test and both of us having our own ways of approaching the question. He noted my incorporation of literature into my examples, and for a moment I felt like an actual English Major.

As we left, he turned to tell me that it may have even been a B paper at Bennington College, or perhaps Williams. I smiled back a thank you. His intentions were pure, but secretly I thanked him for reminding me that I can be great when the standards are low.