Reality Is Not Always What We Expect it To Be

     Arielle watched her mother pull away from the building where she would take her writing classes and waved. Turning towards the building, she took a deep breath to prepare herself.

         She knew what would happen next. It was what happened in movies, books, tv shows, and real life. First, she would walk in and she would probably be greeted by the front desk person.

         They would say something like, “We are so happy to have you join us. Oh, sweetie you are going to have so much fun in this class.”

And she would respond with a nod and a half-smile. Then the lady would stand, revealing her round girth and short frame and walk her to the class.

Once there, the lady would probably motion to the teacher who would glance in her direction and smile. She would motion Arielle in and allow the front desk lady to leave. Arielle would walk into the room and stand beside the teacher and face the class. She would feel a good deal of apprehension, but she would hide it behind a shy smile that no one would return.

The teacher would introduce her to the class and then ask her to tell them a few things about herself.

Arielle would take a deep breath and then tell them her age, her favorite hobby, what school she went to, and few other things while the class would look at her with boredom or disinterest. She would quiet and an awkward silence would pass over the class a moment before the teacher smiled and told her where she could sit.

Arielle would sit down and set her computer, a notepad, and pencil on her desk all while everyone looked at her. Then the teacher would tell the class to each brief introduce themselves for the new student. To which, Arielle would smile even though the people would not be happy to have someone new in their midst. The teacher would then introduce themself and talk a little bit about what they were doing in the class.

The other people in the class would whisper quietly during this part since they already knew what they were doing and Arielle would just listen. After that, the teacher would write a story prompt on the board and everyone would do one of the two things. They would either get excited for the prompt or groan, though it would be a good-natured groan.

Everyone would reach for their computers and notepads, but the teacher would stop them with a raise of the hand. The room would quiet and everyone would look up. The teacher would then announce that they would not be working alone, but partnering up to write their stories. Someone would ask a dumb question to which the teacher would roll their eyes and answer. And then everyone would partner up.

Then, there would be one unfortunate person who did not get a partner and would end up stuck with her. They would not be happy with working with the new girl and would make the fact know as often as they could. The teacher would probably tell them that it would be a good thing to work with someone knew, which the person would probably ignore, but it would probably stop the grumbling.

Everyone would dislike her. At least at first, but after a few weeks they would probably get used to her. And after month, she would have a friend or two. And after a year, she would be just another member of the class. Until the next new person arrived.

That is what Arielle knew would happen. Or rather, what she thought would happen. Upon arriving, she found that there was no front desk person nor was there even a front desk. The only thing that showed her to the room where the class was held was a taped-on sign with an arrow pointing her to the room.

 She took a breath preparing for the introduction and the stares of the whole class, but they never came. Instead, the teacher nodded at her and gestured her towards a chair. The whole room did not watch her as she expected because they were all focused on the work in front of them.

Arielle checked her watch and wondered if she was late. Nope, she was actually seven minutes early. The teacher noticed her confused look and she whispered, “Before class starts, I have all my students sit down quietly and write down all the things that could keep them from being creative. This helps them to put aside their fear of failure, and it helps them warm up.”

Arielle nodded and pulled out her on things. So far, this class had proved to be different from what she expected it to be.

Once the clock showed 10:30, everyone raised their heads and looked at the teacher.

The teacher briefly introduced her, but she did not ask Arielle to tell them about herself. She told her later that she wanted the students to get to know her individually rather than get to know her because the teacher forced her to share facts about herself.

After the introduction was out of the way, the teacher did two of the things Arielle had expected. She wrote a prompt on the board and she called everyone to pair up and write their stories.

But rather than everyone not wanting to partner with the new girl, several people came up to her and asked to be her partner.

By the end of the class, Arielle realized that she had been wrong on many counts about the class. She had expected everyone to dislike her, but everyone had welcomes her with open arms. In fact, two people seemed like they would become good friends with her.

Often times one expects things to go a certain way and agonize over all the things that could happen, when the actual reality is, in fact, far different from what we think will happens.

—Thora Porter