…have a classmate who always answers first.
HAVE A CLASSMATE WHO ALWAYS ANSWERS FIRST.
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You know the one. That particular individual in every seminar, every lecture, whose hand shot up before the professor even finished the question. Before you could even process the second half of the sentence, let alone formulate your painstakingly crafted response, there they were, articulating the perfect, insightful answer. Did you even truly attend one of our demanding institutions if you didn't experience that subtle pang of defeat, knowing your brilliant thought was now redundant?
It was classic lecture shenanigans, wasn't it? We'd spent hours poring over dense readings, meticulously highlighting, annotating, drawing diagrams in our notebooks. We arrived, armed with insights, ready to engage. Then that person would strike, sometimes with a profound observation, other times with a response so quick it felt like they'd anticipated the question. You'd half-listen, half-stew, half-admire their sheer audacity.
But that shared experience, that collective internal sigh (because, of course, we’re all poised), became a strange kind of bond. It was a test of mental agility, a push to think faster, to speak up even if not first. It taught us resilience, the art of rephrasing, or simply the value of listening. It was part of the fabric, a quintessential character in the drama of our academic lives. And honestly, wouldn't our memories be less vivid without them?