now that i have your attention...

"peculiar..."

Not really something you want to hear from your professor. DEFINITELY not something you want him to say while looking at your first exam. It does makes a good Gmail status though, and yes I'm using it to write a post...

Sometimes it takes doing something wrong to set yourself apart. It took misreading one part of a test problem for me. I guarantee you that man will remember me for the rest of the semester, and now he knows that my brain functions on a slightly alternate (not higher necessarily, but definitely different) level than the rest of the known world. When it comes down to it, I made him laugh -- and people remember things like that. Now no matter what I do, I have his attention just because he has a memorable event to connect to my name and face. If I had just made a simple A on that test, I would be one of 9. Because I can't read correctly, I'm in a category all by myself.

I accidentally slept through a diff-eq test worth 20% of my grade yesterday and cried for the first time when talking to a professor. He laughed at me for awhile before letting me take it in his office that afternoon. That experience was horrific for me at the time -- but now he knows my name. He hadn't even noticed that I wasn't there, but I would be willing to bet that he'll be looking for me next time.

So, here's my point: sometimes it helps to screw up. It makes you an individual and if you are willing to try to get it right next time, most people will have a good amount of sympathy for you. You'll have lots of hilarious stories and probably come out of it having showed people that you ARE capable of what you're trying to do even though you didn't always do it right the first time.

So don't worry when you get it wrong, because you've just created a really great opportunity to get it right next time when you have their attention.