Theresa Story No. 1: My Technologically Enhanced Passive Aggressive Force Field (TEPAFF)

I have always claimed to have a technologically enhanced passive aggressive force field (TEPAFF) that is comprised of my iPod, cell phone, book (now iPad), and either a hat or shades, or the combination of the two.  The goal of this is to prevent human interaction unless it is absolutely necessary.  I later observed that another purpose of this is to avoid a breech of ideology that is incompatible with mine unless that breech is invited.  I did not however have this insight on my own.  I'm introspective but I am yet to achieve that level of self-actualization.  Instead it was at a moment where I wished for a camera (I dabble in photography too).  I sat in the hallway of Hilbun Hall after a Medical Microbiology exam (I love Medicine so I occasionally take medical classes).  The demography makeup of a class is an immediate observation.  Then I watch as patterns emerge.  This class was  comprised of:

1 uber-conservative Southern Baptist (I say that because she informed of this the first day as a disclaimer to some of her future comments and view points.) Professor who felt the need to expound how the immune system was proof of God and who actually expected students to answer the exam question, "why is the cost of pharmaceuticals justifiable?"

1 black, female continuing education student who has been told she is too smart for her own good. (Guess who that was).

1 white female student who said she is Catholic because it is the only religion "flexible enough" to adjust to her individual beliefs.

1 black male student who felt the Daily Show was offensive, stupid, and needed to be taken off the air.  He also said it wasn't funny. 

1 white female nursing student who needed the course before she could continue at MUW.

2 black female students seeking entry into any nursing program.

1 white female student from Belzoni, who was the daughter of a man I came in contact with everyday as the office manager at the clinic, but had never seen because Belzoni remains that segregated.  *Side note I love when I meet white people from the first time.  Depending on my mood, I feel the need to say, "Hey, isn't funny that we grew up in the same town and had to leave that town to meet?"

Now the picture perfect moment that made me realize that more and more people carry a technologically enhanced passive aggressive force-field and to what end it was being used for happened as we awaited the last people's finishing the test. (For those of you who are curious it was the two unclassified black girls...not necessarily racist just a fact.)  This was a summer session and after the test we would have another hour of lecturing.  As I sat there with my iPod blaring French pop singer Camille and Corneille, hoping to glean a bit more unapproachability, I observed similar efforts in other students.

One student had pulled her hat down over her face and plugged in her ear buds and was texting.   She had also gone to the far side of the corridor closest to the exit and was leaning so that neither the students in the hall nor the students and professor remaining in the classroom was able to make eye contact with her.  The catholic student and the Daily Show dissenter were engaged in a conversation with each other, but they were standing closer to the classroom facing each other.  The nursing student never left the class.  Instead she pulled out her notes and began to prepare for the pending lecture while listening to her iPod as well. (I don't know that she was actually reading her notes, but I do know that feigning intense academic diligence is a very effective means of deterring interruption while simultaneously avoiding eye contacts with whom I like to refer to as "undesirables."  My homie (the student from my hometown) stayed behind to quietly talk to the professor.  

Finally as the two young ladies exited the classroom they both mean-mugged (sneared/glared) at the young black man conversing with the young white woman.  At this point I must tell you that these two individuals' conversation appeared to be the most inviting.  They were talking Biology in the Biology building. They were smiling.  They're body language said hey come talk viruses and labs with us fellow nerds. 

Nevertheless the two black students who appeared to share their distaste in a conversation between a white female student and a black male student that neither of us would ever date (not gonna get into that), did not sit and speak to me (I after all participate in class discussions, finished the test first and was listening to French music - Weird) nor did they speak with each other. Instead they sat right next to each other, buried their heads in their phones and began to text. 

Now you may be asking yourself why does she remember this day so vividly.  Could it be the D I got the exam for my failure to fully understand the financial commitment made by pharmaceutical companies in Research and Development? Was it that it was the beginning of the end of one of my sexiest summers before the graduate school weight gain began.  No, it was the imagery.  It was the fact that if I hadn't looked up everyone involved would have been totally unaware of how technology and the interaction order (Google it) worked together to create a living & breathing still shot of human indifference and my own misanthropic avoidance techniques. Its also because it’s the Theresa Story I tell whenever someone questions what my TPAFF is and how are they breeching it.