Yesterday as I sat waiting to be paged, a classmate strolled by.
Classmate X.
Classmate X recognized me and took a seat next to me. We exchanged the usual pleasantries. “How did [insert 4A CompEng specific info] go?” “What did you think of […]?” “Have you started preparing for midterms yet?” So far, so good. It was idle chitchat and neither of us were really engaged.
That’s when Classmate X noticed the papers I held.
He started ‘eyeing’ them. Staring at them blatantly. It was initially disconcerting and progessively annoying to talk to Classmate X. I’d turn to say a few words and there he was – reading off my papers. He was far more occupied in reading my scribblings than the words I was saying.
Hello! I wrote the darn thing. If you’re so interested in what I’ve written and where I’m going next – ask me! I won’t bite your head off. And if I don’t want to answer – I’ll say so upfront. But don’t try to get information surreptitiously and fail miserably while doing it.
Maybe he thought it’d be uncomfortable to ask me. Dunno. Maybe I was a bit on-edge yesterday and easily annoyed. Dunno. But in general, I don’t like the entire “watching over the shoulder”, “reading sideways” etc. etc. business.