This was about 12 years ago. Sensitive stellium in Scorpio recoils in the bright light.

“How are you?” I asked.

“Awful. Terrible. I just had the worst day,” he said. “It could not have been worse.”

“What happened?”

“We had an assembly at school. You know. They get all the kids in the gym… it’s supposed to be for school spirit. It’s just something they do once a year.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“So what happened?”

“Oh, Elsa. I can barely… I don’t even want to tell you but I will.”

“What happened?”

“Well the teachers all stand in the back there and they call your name. One by one they call the teachers by name. They introduce and we have to walk out and stand there.”

“Gotcha. What happened?”

“Well I was just standing back there will everyone else. I was waiting to have my name called, walk out and get this over with.”

“Uh huh?”

“Well they called people’s names and then eventually they called mine.”

“Yeah?”

“Well I had to go out there and when I did, the whole place jumped to their feet and started cheering.”

“Oh God. Oh God. Poor Ben.”

“Elsa, you can not imagine. It was insane. The whole… everyone was on their feet yelling and chanting my name. I wanted to bolt out of there, I am sure you can imagine. There was thundering applause… you know. It’s a gymnasium so everything echoes and sounds even louder than it is and believe me it was loud.”

“Ugh. I’d have been a deer in headlights. I’d have probably burst into tears.”

“Well I didn’t feel like crying, but I did feel like a deer in headlights and I did want to run out of there. And it went on for… an eternity. Screaming, yelling, whistling, chanting…”

“Ugh.”

“Yes. It was almost unbearable and here’s the worst.”

“What?”

“They didn’t do this for any other teacher.”

“Oh God…”

“Right. All the other teachers got… polite applause at most. Some of them even got booed. Can you believe that?”

“Yes.”

“Well actually so can I. These are kids and they don’t think. They don’t think about people’s feelings. But can you imagine how it must have felt to be one of my colleagues? The ones whose names had already been called who were standing there next to me? Or to be one of the ones whose names were going to be called after mine? And have to walk out there to a smattering of applause? These people are my colleagues and some of them are my friends. And they’re working hard too… most of them.”

“Horrible. God, I am so sorry. Ugh.”

“Elsa, I can’t tell you. I could have died. Right there and then, I’d have liked to. This was one of the worst days of my life.”

“I can see why.”

“Yes. And I felt horrible for the other teachers especially. But I have no idea what I could have done to change it or stop it. I wasn’t expecting it and even if I was, there is no way I can stop 300 kids from yelling like that. Tell middle school students not to do something like this and they’ll yell twice as loud.”

“I bet.”

“Afterwards I tried to tell them… I told the other teachers, I don’t like this. I don’t enjoy. I explained that it embarrasses me, but no one believes me. They think I do like it.”

“Oh, brother. I’m sorry, Ben. It sounds like a total horror. This only once a year?”

“Yes.”

“Next year, I’d be sick on assembly day. Never again.”

“Good idea. That’s a good idea, Elsa.”

Skip to Carnegie Hall

How would you have felt in Ben’s situation?