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snoopyboy

snoopyboy

Antarctica

November 9, 2012

Presentation Day: The Individuals

(The Saturday following the events in my blogs “A Saturday Thrill” and “The Plan”)

It was Speech Day for the individual projects.

 I barely made it on time for class because I spent too much time in front of my mirror trying desperately to convince myself that I was ready. I didn’t know how much confidence the mirror trick had brought me, all I knew is that I didn’t have that spring in my steps as expected, on my way to the classroom.

    The class was too crowded for my liking. I did a quick headcount as I searched for a seat. I resolved that only two students weren’t there, a conclusion which ruled out the chance of an annulment of the presentations. Although I wasn’t late but being the last person to show up put me in a tight spot. The teacher made it clear last week that any latecomer would be the first to present. And the fact that she quickly looked at the clock when she saw me entering the class wasn’t reassuring. I sat down hoping someone will turn up but no one else came in after me. I wasn’t as nervous as I was last week before the presentations got called out, but I wasn’t prepared to be the first on stage. Everyone waited in a Zen-like stillness. The clock became everyone’s enemy when it attracted the eyes of our instructor who shortly after announced very calmly: “it’s time!”

     Our instructor took a seat among us, leaving the stage for the would-be first presenter and the many others who would follow. Everybody winced in their seats wishing they could elude the scanning reading-glasses of hers.” What would it be class? I pick a name off my hat or is anyone of you would like to volunteer?” she asked pensively. After a brief moment of silence, some giggling and mumbling began to be heard. Every student was looking for a savior in their peers, “please, go first” they seemed to be pleading. I raised my hand, but it was not detected by the teacher because a voice made her steer towards it. “I’ll go “someone else attested. A choir or relieved applause accompanied her from her seat to the stage behind the makeshift podium. “That’s very brave of you” Joos thought, but he said that in almost a teasing manner. “Why didn’t you go first? Why don’t you show the very same courage and go next? “I wanted to ask him, but I resisted the urge. I didn’t want to start a blood sport over such matter.

     To my biggest amazement Joos opted to go after the girl had finished her presentation. She looked relieved as she slumps back in her seat. She deserved any bit of applause for her heroism. The class roared even louder when Joos took the stage. He showed no nerves at all. I couldn’t help but to smile when he begged the class to cease “Thank you, I’m very touched, please”. The next 20 minutes or so that followed his cheering held the class on the edge of their seats with his alluring speech.  All eyes were trained on him; nobody wanted to miss anything he had to say. When he was done he quickly asked “is there any clarification you guys would like to hear? Or I’ll try to answer some of the questions you might have “. “Any questions?” he persisted. Two students were brave enough to qualm his intelligence asked him two tricky questions that he gladly flattened. Another round of applause erupted and this time the teacher had to intervene to make us stop.  It would have been remiss of me if I didn’t think he’d earned his cheers. Silence reigned over the class once again, as we waited for a third volunteer. I was about to lift my rear off my seat when a student decided he’d go next. The applause took a little while to be heard and it was nothing compared to the ovation Joos ignited. He was less enthused, made minimal eye contact .He finished well below the 20 minutes mark we were assigned . He was asked only one question to which he simply answered ‘yes’ to.  

      It was nearing break time and the teacher suggested that we’d still have margin for one more speech. The somber silence that followed surpassed all adjectives. You would have thought she’d invited us to step on a gallows.  I really wanted to go then, but I would not have minded if someone else went. I waited, but so was everybody else.  “I will go “I raised my hand to say. The teacher gave me the nod to the stage, and the class gave me something unexpected, a deafening cheer. I thought I‘d won an Oscar. Jemina and Enne who sat next to each other were grinning and they gave me the thumb ups. Joos apparently didn’t mind sharing the spotlight, he was smiling. Unlike Him, I didn’t want the cheering to stop but it eventually did which indicated that I should begin speaking. I looked down at the notes I had on my flashcards, but they looked like nothing that I had written, I couldn’t read anything, not even my opening sentences. I was getting quite anxious. I know the expectation of the class was high by the intensity of their clappings, all the more reason for making a good impression. I began to shuffle around all the papers I had in my hands, notes that I knew were already in order. I turned them over, and ultimately I decided it’s best if I didn’t use any notes. I began. I introduced a summary of my business plan briefly and throughout the rest of my speech words came scampering out my mouth. As I browsed the classroom, I got a sense of how it looked when Joos was presenting.   Everyone’s eyes were glued on me, whether it was my idea they liked so much or the way I spoke that got them so focused, I wasn’t sure but it was working to my advantage. When I wrapped up I invited my peers to ask any question they would like to ask, something only Joos had done before. One came from the teacher herself “snoopy, could you please tell us, oh! first, excellent delivery” she led yet another round of clapping. I felt overly flattered. She went on to ask her question which I breezed through. However, Joos felt I was getting away too easily and asked a pointed question. He inquired about something I didn’t even mention about in my Power Point slideshow. At this point I felt that he was just being pesky and wanted to mar my lovely presentation. I wanted to weave out by lying and stating that what I failed to present in my slide was in the hard copy I intend to hand to the teacher. But I chose not to lie; I didn’t want that to backfire on me should the teacher choose to verify later. I stuttered but I managed to say “I’m afraid I failed to mention this point in my project, but you’re right, this is something I should have considered”. My response was merely theatrical but spared me the trouble of getting caught lying.

     I was among the first students that stampeded out class when we were told we could have a 30 minute break. I lolled around in the halls hoping perhaps our group could use this spare time to thrash out our project.  I examined the crowd of students but it seemed as though my partners had vanished.  “How do you think I did?” asked a rather familiar voice from behind me. I spun around on my heels and it was Joos facing me. “I think you were brilliant” I responded. There wasn’t any trace of pretense in my compliment, although he sort of took the gloss out  of my performance with his darn question. He told me he thought that I didn’t look like I wanted to be on the broad initially, but that I was able to pick myself up and capture the class in my speech. I thanked him but hastened to veer to the topic of our assignment, rather indirectly, by adding “I hope and I think we could do a better job next time”. I thought he realized what I was alluding to and responded dimly “Right, Right our presentation is due next week”.  I granted him with an empathic stare  that must have translated to him the rage that was spiking inside of me at that time; he looked down and began to scratch his scalp.”Next week!, that means we don’t have much time, man!” I asserted. He looked up and grabbed my shoulder and told me “We’ll be fine.., Look! You see that speech I just gave?”. “Yes, Joos, I saw it, heard it and I was impressed. But where are you going with this?” I asked a little worried. He smirked and said“I completed it this morning; the whole thing took me 3 hours man! 3 hours! We’ve got a week! We’ll be fine”. “Three hours? - Are you kidding me, you’re a genius!” I wowed. “Man, I’m hungry let’s go get lunch” he suggested ignoring my praise as though I had just called him by his proper name. I complied and we began to make our way out  the building.  At that moment I felt I was really  taking this project too seriously, it’s was four of us pooling our resources together and one of us was Joos- a persuasive speaker who could construct masterwork in just three-hour’s time. As we were walking he made a chilling revelation “You know, that project I presented earlier is a proposal my colleagues and I had done at work, I just had to change some of the figures around, cut out some irrelevant data, add a few more things to it and I was done”. I couldn’t believe my ears what he just said. I was shocked. “That was your individual project, fine! But we can’t pull out our group project from your archive at work Joos!- Ours must be original, we need to reap it from our brains and that can’t get done in three hours, and if you ask me,  one week is barely enough!” I squalled. “We can meet up after class today, we should come up with an idea” he said, trying to wind me down. [idea? We already have an idea Joos, and I’ll tube- feed it to you if you try to repel it] that reflection triggered a chuckle in me. He smiled, thinking maybe he had calmed my nerves with his words. “There you go, relax, we’ll be fine” he reassured.

     “Hey guys, we’re going to grab something to eat, would you like to join us?” suggested Enne, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.” Yeah! We can ride my car” cuckooed Jemina who stood next to her, dangling her keys with her fingers. The girls looked identical the way they dressed, I guessed the fashion talks they had last week apparently was responsible. Who knows, maybe they’d spent hours on the phone debating over what they’d wear, precious times they could have invested in working on our project instead. Anyhow, Joos was the first to comment, on the girls’ proposal “I should have brought my car today; it’s big enough to fit all of us”. The girls seemed baffled as they were still left waiting for an answer, not a boaster. “I think what Joos meant is that he will accept a ride from you, Jemina” I said with a lot of teasing in my tone.  We all were laughing at my amusing remark when one of our classmate interrupted “hey, is there room for one more? I’d like to come “. Jemina readily accepted. We headed to the parking lot and Joos claimed the passenger seat, Jemina was behind the wheel, Enne, our classmate and I occupied the backseats. “Joos, would  you mind giving up your seat to Enne? – A woman should always be on front and center” I mocked as we were about to pull out. That made everyone burst out laughing again.  I wanted to take another jab at him for his pompous remark but also in retaliation to his tricky question from earlier. But I guessed I was pushing my luck a little bit too far this time. He turned the laughter against me with a clever comeback” Well, Snoopy, I find it a little odd that you would want three guys crammed on the backseats. Is Enne making you nervous or what? Our classmate must have been choking by his own tears of joy he could barely speak “I… ( laugh) I think ( laugh)… I think he mowed you down Snoopy”. That made matters even worse for me as people were laughing even louder. “Ok, cut it off” said Enne springing as referee as always. Her intervention created a truce between me and Joos.  The laughing however didn’t stop and continued all the way the restaurant we were driving to. We poked fun at each other and the way we presented; the girls joked about how their presentation might turn out. All in all, our lunch break was very relaxing and not for even one second did I think about  the troubling matters of our group project; it was a 30 minutes of pure comedy.

     Our classmate declared something that I thought came as a major surprise as we entered the building on our way back to class. He said that we were a hilarious and on top of that were the best group and how he wishes he was part of it. If he only knew how far behind we were on our project, he would have bitten his tongue twice before he attested that. None of us took his compliment too seriously though. In fact, it was more like a farce to enliven the girls’ moods before their presentations. We took our seats and waited for the teacher to signal the next round. I was contemplating the expressions on my team-members’ faces when someone else was presenting. As misplaced as it sounded, I thought maybe our classmate’s remark had vibrated some senses of urgency in them concerning our project. They seemed preoccupied and tormented by something. I spent over 30 minutes in that pensive state, through many applause and speeches, I only snapped out of it when Jemina took the stage. I don’t think she underwent closer scrutiny from our instructor than what she got from me. I took mental notes of her strong points and where she could have done a better job in her speech. Enne went through the same strainer. Overall, I was very satisfied with the girls’ performance and I made sure each of them received a thumb up from me as repayment. They received the same show of support from Joos.  However found it a little ironic he didn’t try to cluster them or anyone else with any question like he did with me.

      The last student presented and was very engaging and funny during her time. The teacher took the stage and joked how a quiz would deservedly conclude our speeches. She was very brief in her closing words but said enough to express how she enjoyed our work “Enjoy the rest of the day, class; see you next week for your group presentations, good job!”.

     I was the last person to leave the classroom, scattered ahead of me was the rest of my group. Joos was heading towards the men’s rooms, I supposed Jemina was digging in her purse looking for her car keys, Enne was already consumed with a cell phone conversation. They were slipping away from me; God knows what that would cost us if I let them. I didn’t. I was about to call for a meeting.

“Guys!!!” I yelled.

Snoopyboy.

Enne and Jemina were supposed to bring a rough draft of the research on their assigned sections we’d agreed on last week. I had mine clutched in my hand, did they bring theirs? – If not, the odds of convincing Joos would be abysmally low.

Thanks for reading.

Peace!

~Stay tuned for the last of my blogs about those thrilling Saturdays ~

;)

 

More entries: About Resillience :), Presentation Day : The Groups (6), Presentation Day : The individual Projects (10), The Plan :) (4), A Saturday Thrill (10), Snoopy is in the loop :) (9), Being Stubborn Happy :') (7), Practice (9), The Spare Father (30), A Mysterious Place (#3) : "Seeds of Looga" (27)

View all entries from My Blog >

06:25 AM Apr 02 2013

snoopyboy

snoopyboy
Antarctica

Hi Moriza

thanks for your wish . I'm always in good spirit around Easter time and this year was no different.

I hope you had a lovely Easter as well. May you and your family be blessed in abundance.

take care.

04:47 AM Mar 30 2013

Moriza

Moriza
Ukraine

Hi Snoopy!

Happy Easter!!!


05:56 AM Mar 04 2013

Nijar

Nijar
Egypt

Lovely story(diary).I'd like to ask literally,what you meant with these expressions:"put the reader in my shoes and merry girls."

11:19 AM Jan 24 2013

MESS

MESS
Turkey

What about this?

Three Red Tulips HD wallpaper for Standard 4:3 5:4 Fullscreen UXGA XGA SVGA QSXGA SXGA ; Wide 16:10 5:3 Widescreen WHXGA WQXGA WUXGA WXGA WGA ; HD 16:9 High Definition WQHD QWXGA 1080p 900p 720p QHD nHD ; Other 3:2 DVGA HVGA HQVGA devices ( Apple PowerBook G4 iPhone 4 3G 3GS iPod Touch ) ; Mobile VGA WVGA iPhone iPad PSP Phone - VGA QVGA Smartphone ( PocketPC GPS iPod Zune BlackBerry HTC Samsung LG Nokia Eten Asus ) WVGA WQVGA Smartphone ( HTC Samsung Sony Ericsson LG Vertu MIO ) HVGA Smartphone ( Apple iPhone iPod BlackBerry HTC Samsung Nokia ) Sony PSP Zune HD Zen ; Tablet 2 Android ;

or this?

or this?

Yellow Tulips Field

10:02 AM Nov 20 2012

snoopyboy

snoopyboy
Antarctica

Yes, Moriza "perfect student according to my story or perhaps only for this specific class :).

Thanks for reading and you're right working as a group can present us with a lot of challenges. But like many other things in life, we can't deny  that it has it's advantages and downsides. Let's wait and see what the story unveils ;)

06:49 AM Nov 20 2012

Moriza

Moriza
Ukraine

As I promised yesterday,I,ve read your exciting story today.Bravo!You have great abilities in writing.You said "to be continue...",so I,ll wait impatiently for it.

 What I can say? You are a perfect student (according to the story),and Joos is your opponent.There is a struggling between you and him.From one side it stimulates and pushes you to run ahead of the race,but there are many minuses too.If to addition he is your friend,then your friendship is a weird combination of exciting and depressing (maybe not?).

It was an individual project and you deserve for a praise-well done.Let,s see what will happen in the next part.I,m sure,you won,t let things take a dark turn.

 I keep my eye waiting your story soon.

 Bye for now and good luck!

08:47 AM Nov 12 2012

snoopyboy

snoopyboy
Antarctica

Lesya, I summon you to the meeing to back me up in case things get bloody ;)

Your observations are very interesting .There's a battle going on and the merry girls sit way up high in the bleachers cheering every punch that's thrown or endured by either of us ;). Stay tuned for next class as the thrill or should I say the spill ends ;)

Thanks for your contribution and your time reading me

08:43 AM Nov 12 2012

snoopyboy

snoopyboy
Antarctica

Butta, at first glance I thought you were singing Enrique Iglesias ;)

Every line was designed to put the reader in my shoes and on stage with me ;). I tried to be as explicit I can in expressing what I went through that Saturday. Don't let the lenght of the blog fool you, everything I wrote I owe to my vivid memory of the event.

I really appreciate your read and your feedback ;)

04:16 AM Nov 12 2012

kotlesya

kotlesya
Belarus

What I see in this part is the spirit of  veiled rivalry between two minds. This is  so-called “blood sport” between the hardworking mind (you) and lazy, envious, seeking easy ways for the achievement a brilliant success mind (Joos).

The type of personality as Joos usually get what  they want without troubles because “Joos-people” build their carrier by the cost of other people’s reputation or intelligence.

Enne and Jemina are merry girls relying basically on the ideas of their male groupmates  ;) Which idea will they support being already besotted of  Joos’s ability to hold the class’s eyes and ears wide-open?

Time and next blog will tell anyway.            

Thanks for sharing, Snoopy : ) I’m tuned : )

04:00 AM Nov 11 2012

Buttafly

Buttafly
Germany

♫♩♪ Oh, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it

I li-li-like it, li-li-ke it, here we go..

Readin' it all over again ;)  

(Hint: tune of a well known Rockin' song by Status Quo from the late 70s)

What can I say and where do I begin, snoop? 

Every line was worth the read and the time I spent here on your blog.

This was clever, fun and awesome!

Keep up the chuckles that come along with reading your sequence ;)