Random things you learn

This is just plain ironic. For background, my employer wanted me to do a presentation at the Spring Research Conference this coming weekend. So, at work today I had to do my presentation for my Employer and coworker for critiquing. After completing the presentation, my boss said it was pretty good; the main thing I needed to change was that I needed to STOP DANCING AROUND as I am talking. I never realized I was doing that. Who would have thought that I was the kid in high school who refused to go to dances, wanted nothing to do with them, and when forced to go I would bring a book, sit in a corner, and read it. Now, according to my roommates when I told them how funny that was, "You never really stop moving bandjam, even when sitting down. No matter what you are doing you are constantly dancing." I just find this really ironic. I guess that is what life is, ever changing, even in directions you never expected to be able to go.

Another funny part of the critiquing was that my employer noticed I really was nervous talking in front of people, so he commented that presenting is just similar to giving a talk in church, to which I laughed. When asked what was so funny about that, I responded that I technically have never given a sacrament meeting talk except a really long time ago, and I don't really remember that very much. My employer is a bishop and he just looks at me in shock and asked how in the world I got away with that when I was a youth and when being out here. I really don't know how I got away with it at home, but out here I tend to be the pianist and I have noticed that bishops tend to not ask the pianists to give talks in church, for which I am very grateful. I don't know, I just found the whole thing really funny, because that basically mean that I really have never talked in front of a large group of people before and that just shocked my employer and coworker. Well, now that I have said this I probably should knock on some wood or something.

It's interesting how many assumptions people make. As a kid, I always assumed that I would forever hate dance (boy was I ever wrong :-). And my employer assumed that just by being a part of our church, I would have given talks in sacrament meeting before. And my FHE group always assumed that I was the quiet one (until I came once after no sleep and way too much sugar, boy was that a shock to their systems :-). Assumptions are an amusing thing. They are kind of like stereotypes. When you stereotype a person, it takes a lot of work to get rid of that stereotype, and sometimes instead of getting rid of it, the person being stereotyped decides to live up to that stereotype. I have a roommate that refuses to dance because she hated stake dances. So when me and the other roomies try to get her to go to folk dance nights and swing dancing and social dancing, she flatly refuses to go because she claims that they are all going to be exactly like the stake dances. Because of that stereotype, she refuses to do something that very well might be fun if she gave it a chance. So, I am going to end this with something (paraphrased of course) that my mom always said at the dinner table. "You won't know if you like it till you try it."