{She Said} I'm Just Not that Interesting

I generally consider myself one who doesn’t mind (ahem not-so-secretly loves) being in front of crowds. I am usually a pretty good ham and like speaking to and interacting with the crowd mentality. That being said, I have been attending a workshop on the development of the American Republic through 1877 and at the opening session, each person had to stand up and introduce themselves by telling everyone (approx 50 people) his/her name, school, grades and subjects taught (which is all fine), and an interesting fact about yourself (I’m not comfortable with this anymore). That brings up an interesting fact in-of-itself: when asked for interesting things about myself, I become the single most boring person in the world.

This is where my comfort level in front of the crowd diminishes significantly. I feel the pressure bearing down on me to not only come up with a truly interesting fact about myself but deliver it in a clever and entertaining manner.

It looks like I am going to be presenting my information about half-way down the line so I am feeling better about getting some ideas of categories of interestingness that might spawn a thought of my own. It turns out there are four types of responses that can be expected in this scenario. You have the Cop-outs who give something to the effect of, “I don’t really have anything interesting about me” (this irritates the dickens out of me for a couple reasons: it’s against the rules- you were told to give an interesting thing SO GIVE AN INTERESTING THING, and I am putting a lot of effort into this and thus you should return the favor). You can also expect the Geniuses that will give you something that they obviously think you should be impressed with but you’re not. Mundane will be the primary class of responses you get- totally not interesting but obviously the best that person could come up with. And finally there will actually be some Gems of genuinely interesting facts. You see where my anxiety comes from- there is really only one good category to be in.

As the turn slowly marched toward me, I went through any number of things in my head. Really lame things… I was in Marketing (Gosh who HAVEN’T I told that)… I am going to sponsor NJHS next year (hit the snooze button)… I’ve been married 4 years (mmmm yes, they will soon be making a mini-series out of my life)… I can flip my tongue upside down and make loops with it (gross)… OMG I’VE GOT NOTHING. My turn was coming and the pressure was on to please the crowd and come off as this highly interesting person so everyone would want to get to know me. And so here it was…

My name is Jennifer. I teach 7th grade Texas History at Keller Middle School and I am actually a bit of an expert in the field of Reality TV. If you are interested, I will be available for questions throughout the seminar.

People laughed and I believe you would have too. Mission accomplished.

What is your interesting fact?