Go With Your Gut

Sometimes I can be a really shy person depending on who I am around, but other times when I am with people I know, I can be loud and obnoxious. Being shy around people I do not know very well means that I am not myself. Like during school I do not ask questions, and I do not like to be called on because I feel like I could embarrass myself. I would rather keep to myself than to put myself out there and be recognized by everyone. Another reason I do not like asking questions is because I do not want to ask something and then sound like I am not smart. Most of the time I can figure things out if I miss instructions but other times it can be hard. During basketball I kind of am the same way, I like to have fun, but when it comes to talking or asking questions in front of people I usually hate it. Most of the time I can easily figure out what we are doing if I miss the instructions but other times I can not. I do not ask questions a lot and I do not like to be called on to answer a question. During basketball I pay attention almost all of the time because I like to take it seriously. I like to pay attention so I do not have to ask questions but sometimes I fool around and miss instructions.

During basketball practice, we had just done a drill and my coach said we could have a water break. So we all went to get our waters and I was talking to a few of my teammates. While we were having a water break my coach was explaining the next drill and since I was talking to a few other people, I was not listening and neither were they. As soon as the water break was done my coach said to get into the next drill. My teammates and me had no idea what we were supposed to do and none of us wanted to ask him. I knew that I should just ask him but I did not want him to get mad at me or the rest of my team. My coach has a reputation of getting mad at people who do not listen when he is talking. He makes the whole team run when we are not taking things seriously, when we are not doing things the right way or when we are not paying attention to him. So knowing this, I decided it would be better to not ask him to repeat himself. I did not want to sound rude or let him know that I was not paying attention to him. We all thought if we asked to explain it again my coach would get mad and make us run, and nobody wanted to do that. We followed what everyone else was doing, but we ended up doing the drill wrong which made my coach extremely mad. He told all of us to get on the end line and run, my face was as red as a tomato. My teammates and me knew that this was our fault and we felt so bad for the rest of the team. If me or my teammates would have asked my coach to explain it again, my whole team might not have had to run. If I would have asked my coach to explain it again he would have been mad but I believe that he was even more mad when we started the drill and we have no idea what we were doing. The punishment might have been less intense if I would have just asked the question. I should have just gone with my gut. Now that I have gone through this situation, I am able to let everyone know to always pay attention to directions and it will make everything easier. If everyone on my team was informed this then they will be able to save themselves the guilt and embarrassment that I felt.

I felt terrible that I was the reason that everyone else on my team had to run. I felt like everyone was mad at me, it was not a good feeling. All of this had happened because I was not paying attention and I was too shy and embarrassed to ask a question. I learned that I should follow my gut and ask questions that should be asked. I should not be afraid to ask to be embarrassed to ask a question. I also learned that I need to pay attention when someone is trying to give me directions. From now on I will try to ask questions that I want to ask. I will also try to not let embarrassment get in the way of asking questions that I want to ask.

Photo by Leo Reynolds on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA