making a big scene

Published Thursday, October 27, 2005 by jay d | E-mail this post

happy 28th to my brother mark.

now..the big scene:

the facts:

"group" project on de bono's six thinking hats for educational psychology

6 group members - 4 1 girl(s), 3 women and 2 guys

the environment: a college cafeteria in the basement

yesterday, i organized a meeting where my fellow group members and i would go over the finer points of next week's one hour presentation. things were great until this one girl finally arrived.

in the past, i should let it be known, this particular group member - we'll call her ms. B (short for bougie girl/stuck up/high maintenance or even bitch) - really wanted to run the show. she had her own ideas and she shoved them down our throats.

when the other girls had ideas, they would ask the rest of the group what they thought about them. when i or the other dude had something to offer, we asked for input; that's how a group should work. this girl however, came with her agenda and commanded "this is what we're doing and that's the law of the land. i am bougie girl; i am leader, here me roar".

ok, maybe not in those exact words but something along those lines. of course, with that attitude and being scholars, we all opposed to her dictatorship as university students should. fair enough.

see, i can let shit ride.

yesterday however, was the last straw. the girls of my group, God bless 'em were nice, polite, tight lipped girls. very decent. they not only took her shit, but accepted it and flushed their ideas down the toilet. these girls were cool...but way too liberal in terms of letting themselves be walked over.

i, on the other hand couldnt take it anymore. i, on the other hand, was raised differently and i, on the other hand, do not fit your stereotypical, falsely believed orthodox idea about an asian male being 'passive agressive'. i on the other hand, dont fit under a particular label or within a box.

i have principles and morals i strongly believe in and i, therefore, i raised hell.

yesterday, upon making our powerpoint presentation on ms. B's laptop, ms. B herself asked the group "do any of you know how to change the color of the background on a slide?"

me, being the helpful guy i am replied, "yea i can."

because i never majored in powerpointology, i, like the rest of the general population, had to play around with the settings before i got the exact sequence of keys and buttons. i never knew off by heart to go to tools-->slides or whatever the next step would be. all i knew was that i was capable of changing a fucking background of a slideshow. ive completed slideshows and presented them effectively dozens of times over the past four years - you best believe me.

so im going through the options of powerpoint and seconds into looking for the exact option i needed to achieve what i wanted to achieve, ms. B says "look, if you don't know how to do it, then don't say you do. you obviously don't know".

i did know - fuck that.
and with that...i blew up. i did my best fred flintstone impersonation, true to form and said "you know what?...i dont appreciate you talking down to me condescendingly. im trying to help you here".

[scared shitless and in panic] "ohh no nooo i didnt mean it like that", said ms. B

"that's bullshit! fuck you. yes you did. i mean ever since we started this group assignment a month ago, youve been talking to everyone like that. [looking at group members] dont you agree?"

[shocked and not wanting to take sides, there was silence on their part]

at this point, the group was silent and ms. B couldnt look me in the eye.

[a good 67 seconds rolls by of silence]

"do you know how to do this? i can't put bullets in before the text", said ms. B to me [trying to act like noting happened].

"fuck off..you know everything, why dont you do it yourself?"

[mrs. B smiles to self..still cant look me in the eye]

"get that fucking smirk off your face", i said [teeth gritted].

basically, after that...she started listening to everyone and addressing their thoughts and their input.
after that, i could see nice smiles from the girls who couldnt or wouldnt speak up.
after that and after we were alone with ms. B absent, the rest of my group applauded me and thanked me for putting her in her place.

"i was so glad someone finally put her in her place."

see, i quote exactly..that was an exact quote.

and that's my whole big scene. and no, im not sorry about it. if it made a difference for the better, then im happy. if our group is tighter for it, then im happy.

now we can start working for this A+ TOGETHER...and as a "group" - as it should have been from the start.

i'm a leader. i lead by example. leading means respecting your followers but at the same time, not having to sacrifice what you feel you have to do to get to where youre going.

i lead.

ms. B...she's not a leader; she's not a follower.
she'd like to posture as a leader but she read the wrong manual.
ms. B is a fucking idiot.

i dont care who you are, how pretty you are or what the circumstances are -- if you fail to treat others without dignity and respect; others who can't speak up for themselves and if you try that shit on me, be prepared to be put in your place.

signed,
jason ryan de los Reyes
(place-putter and professional leader)

3 Responses to “making a big scene”

Anonymous on 9:04 AM, October 28, 2005

it's always nice to take down tyrants.

raise the roof for mr. de los.

rock that presentation, like run dmc would rock the box.
Anonymous on 2:42 PM, October 30, 2005

don't it feel good to go crazy on someone who really deserves it?
Anonymous on 9:56 PM, October 31, 2005

raising hell is my forte. it should be everyone's.

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