Out of my depthAs a schoolkid, I signed up for a public speaking contest purely as a ruse to meet girls. It haunts me still: in front of 300 people, I started to speak, dried up, stood there for what felt like half an hour staring at the floor and then slowly walked back to my seat. Oh, and the girl I liked laughed.
Have you ever been utterly, completely, devastatingly out of your depth?
(
chthonic, Thu 14 Oct 2004, 15:07)
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I am a Stupid AmericanOkay, so I'm standing in front of my tenth grade American history class, dressed up in drag as General Grant--with the cigar and the fake military decorations and everything. And I'm going on about the Civil War and all.
General Grant was, in addition to being a Civil War general, also the 17th or 18th president of the United States. I didn't know that, though. I know it *now*, but I didn't know it at the time.
So after I get done going on about the Civil War, teacher says, "now, what about the presidency?"
Wow. Out of my depth. I'm standing up there in a General Grant costume with no *clue* as to what she's on about. Was she on about Lincoln? No..A previously unknown section of my brain vaguely, vaguely remebered hearing of a President Grant..I wasn't even sure if it was the same guy, though. "The presidency, it was swell," I said, mangling my cigar. And that was it. It's not like you can BS history, you know.
I'm not normally that stupid about history, I promise. I'd gotten like five sources about General Grant for this project and not one of them mentioned him being the freaking president, so it's not like I was slack.
I got a B+. It was a nice costume.
(, Wed 20 Oct 2004, 17:47, Reply)
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