Everyone knows the dreaded question every single professors ask on the first day of class. "Can you tell us something interesting about yourself?" My brain rushes to all the uninteresting things about me. I watched a whole seven season series on Netflix in two weeks, I one time made a cookie ice cream sandwich in the dining hall, I can turn my coffee machine on without getting out of bed. See, nothing interesting to report here. Since being asked this question so many times before, I have come up with my one and only response to this completely overused question. And now, I am going to tell you something interesting about myself.
I'm not entirely sure what it is about injury stories, but people always seem to enjoy them. Mine is particularly interesting, at least I like to think so. Maybe it's the element of surprise. Maybe it's the absolute ridiculousness of the story. Or maybe it's just because it happened to me. Whatever the case may be, this story sure is a doozie. Let us start this story with a warning: be careful when handling fire.
It all started when my brother and I decided that we wanted to roast some marshmallows. Too bad for us, the weather was not going to allow for that, as it was raining. But don't you worry. My brother and I were two pretty crafty toddlers and a little rain wasn't going to stop us from having our treat. Instead, what we did was set up our marshmallow roasting extravaganza in the kitchen, cause we had a gas stove which made flames. Let the fun begin.
I'm going to make the assumption everyone reading this has roasted marshmallows before in their life. If you are someone who has not, I feel sorry for you and 10/10 recommend changing that as soon as possible because YUM. For those of you who are familiar with the process of roasting a marshmallow, you know that the trick is to go slow and steady to get a perfectly golden brown toasted marshmallow. Well, I like to be a rebel and instead of going slow and steady, I like to set the marshmallow on fire and let it burn for a few seconds before blowing out the flames.
First mistake. Fire inside the house, no matter how small are never a smart idea. Second mistake, making a little fireball of deliciousness inside the house at age five. As someone who has roasted marshmallows before, I knew that when one catches fire, whether by mistake on purposefully, that there is no need to panic, simple blow on it and the fire will go away. So little me thought.
When I went to do something I had done countless times before, something different happened. I blew out the flames on the marshmallow and to my surprise when I put the marshmallow back down, I still saw fire. For a few seconds, I couldn't figure out why. I inspected the marshmallow because maybe I didn't get all of it out. Not until I heard my mother screaming at the top of her lungs did I realize. MY NOSE WAS ON FIRE! My brother, my mother, and myself all froze at what was going on. Finally. my mom sprung into action and filled a glass of water and threw the whole thing at my face to put out the flames.
At the time, this was the most terrifying thing that had ever happened to me. Today, I look back on that experience and laugh uncontrollably at how ridiculous that experience was. So when professors ask me to tell them something interesting about myself, I try to sit with a straight face and say, "A marshmallow set me on fire once." And I love the look on confusion and the initial hush I get over the room whenever I say that, because no one is ever expecting that sentence to come out of my mouth.
