We have all heard it, many times, I might add. I even remember reading a story when I was little that gave the same advice I heard from numerous people. It is about a woman who leaves her baby with her pet mongoose as she goes to work in the farm. When she returns, she sees that the mongoose has blood stains on its mouth. Concluding that it must have killed the baby, the woman beats the mongoose to death. She rushes into her bedroom, where she finds her baby sound asleep with a dead snake lying on the ground.
After reading the story, I remember thinking how incredible stupid it was of the woman to rush into making such a hasty conclusion. I also remember thinking that I, being the egoistic person I was, was never going to make such an absurd mistake. I promised myself that I was always going to think before I leaped. Then it happened.
It was just the usual French class where my teacher would greet us politely, and we would start talking in French. In the beginning, we talked about our day, the weather, and other less important stuff before actually moving into the plan for the day. This particular French class, a boy was supposed to do an oral presentation. He was late, as usual, so the teacher asked us about the classes we had before French. She asked me what I had, and I said English. She asked me if I was in AP English or AS English. I told her that I was in the AP class. Then, her next question interrupted the rhythm of the class.
She asked me what the difference was. Of course, I knew that students who were struggling with English were usually in the AS class. However, what I said next didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to. Now, for the benefit of the reader, and to avoid humiliation, I am going to skip my reply, but you can probably imagine what it was.
After I said what I shouldn't have said, without thinking much about it because I was in a particularly good mood that day, the class fell silent. Then, my teacher looked at me with great big eyes that seem to have magnified in the split of a second. Her mouth formed an oval as she sucked in a short breath, as did the rest of the class.
I stopped for a moment and realized what hurtful and insulting words had escaped my mouth. I immediately took back any offence, though I couldn't, and told the class that I was sorry and that it didn't come out the way I wanted it too. Some giggled, but we moved on after that, and by the end of the class, no one remembered what had happened.
As for me, throughout the whole class and through the day, I felt a big black hole emerging at my chest and eating up my insides. I felt guilty, extremely guilty. Even though nobody from the AS class was in my class, I still realized how rude it would have been of me to say something so blunt. I had always pictured myself to be collected and careful of what I said and did. However, that incident really forced my eyes open and I realized how I could hurt other's feelings if I wasn't careful with my words. I realized how important it was that I follow the advice that I have heard so many times that it seems almost meaningless: think before you speak.
