Like a smack in the face!

So earlier today, I was thinking about a time during college when I was accused of cheating. Yes, yes, I know, hard to believe.

I was a junior taking Anthropology 101 (circa 2005) and we were taking a multiple-choice test. I knew all the answers (seriously, I did!) but I was curious as to how my friend next me was doing. I noticed that he'd already answered a few wrong, and I was thinking that I hoped he didn't fail. Innocent me didn't even THINK about how it must look, me peeking ever-so-slightly at his exam. I guess I peeked a little longer than I thought because the next thing I knew the professor came over to me, took my test, and marched me to the very front of the class (there were about 50 students) and sat me down right in front of him. Since it hadn't even registered yet what happened, I was utterly dumbfounded and asked what was going on. He looked at me like I was an idiot and told me he saw me looking at the other guy's paper. Well, I had never been so completely mortified in my LIFE. I started to try to explain, but I quickly realized that the professor didn't know me, didn't know anything about me... of course I just looked like another cheater. I thought I was going to vomit all over myself. Fortunately I held it back. I finished the exam in record time (I guess he "caught" me early enough that it wasn't worth failing me over, thank God), handed it in, and left as fast as possible.

For some reason I started to think about this while I was teaching my level 2 class today. They were doing some pairwork speaking and I was just listening, so my mind wandered a bit. I'm pretty sure just remembering all those feelings made me feel sick all over again... I must have looked it, too, because a student asked if I was okay. Oops. I came back to reality after that.

It's just so weird how you can remember some situations as if they just happened yesterday, with all of the same feelings, but others quickly leave your mind.

It seems that the moments we wish to forget always stay with us the longest.