Answering Fewer Questions

You take your usual seat next to Vishal, who gives you a wide grin.

“You know how the prof said we had to participate in some experiments? I think I found one that fits our tastes.”

“Oh yeah, what is it?”

“I’ll text you the details tonight. But it looks fun,” he says, giving you a mysterious grin.

“Why not just spill the beans now?”

“I wanted to give you a chance to brush up on your reading before class. You haven’t done much of the reading yet, have you?”

“I’ve done a bit,” you say defensively, but Vishal is right. There’s a still a massive stack of books to get through, and this is going to be a problem if you don’t address it soon.

“I mean, your loss if you don’t do it,” Vishal shrugs. “This is my blow-off class, but you wanted to get Sarah’s attention, right?”

“Yeah, so I guess I have to do the readings,” you sigh, taking a book out of your backpack.

You desperately flip through the pages, trying to absorb as much as you can in the few minutes before class begins, but it’s clearly not going to be enough time. Nevertheless, you hurriedly turn through the pages, refreshing yourself while Vishal kicks back and texts his girlfriend, a silly smile crossing his face from time to time.

“Ahem.” The professor clears his throat, getting the attention of the class. “Quite a lot of readings to parse, as per usual. Let’s start with the Erikson. Who can tell me the two stages of psychosocial development you lot are going through right now, and let’s hear what you think unifies them.”

Shit, this is one of the readings you skimmed at some point. Your hand shoots up, along with a dozen others in the room. Competition is fierce, but the professor locks eyes with you, calling your name. It takes you a moment to recall your answer.

“Everyone in this class is what, about 18-22? So um… there are two crises that we could be going through. The teenage one’s about Identity vs. Role Confusion, while the young adult one’s on on Intimacy vs. Isolation.” So far so good, but this is simple regurgitation of a basic point.

“And I guess, they’re brought together because they’re both psychological stages to work through, according to Erikson, right? Big life problems?”

You see a couple of frowns around the room, and feel a sinking feeling in your stomach, but some of the other students are nodding. What to make of this?

“A bit of a basic answer,” the professor says. “But thank you for opening up the class. The nuance that Alex missed has to do with how relationships develop over the course of these two crises…”

You listen as the professor explains the answer that you should have given, and you want to hit yourself for messing this chance up. It’s not easy to get called on in this class, and this could have been your chance to get Sarah’s attention.

The class goes on much as you’d expect, with plenty of questions fired across the room. You don’t get another chance to speak. Part of it is because you’re cowed by the response you got to your first answer, but it’s mostly because you simply don’t know the readings well enough to answer these questions.

Sarah +1