Rick Chamberlin's Incoming Freshman Football Team Speech
I watch a lot of public speakers while I’m running a sound board at UD. I watch lots of boring speeches. Oftentimes, I don’t understand how the speeches relate to the students. For example, right now, one of the deans of student affairs is giving a terrible speech. She’s talking about how much she loves the football team, how she doesn’t like basketball… it’s all anecdotal. Her point is that students get anxious, but she just keeps talking. She asked the audience if anyone graduated from UD and followed it up with “where did you live?” One of the parents said “I lived in the ghetto.” I laughed because they’re trying to rename it as the “student neighborhood.” She sounds like my mom telling me how to live my life; it’s important to hear it again and again, but it’s annoying and I’ve stopped listening.
But Rick Chamberlin has been coaching football for 40 some years. He’s seen a lot of the patterns over and over again, and he’s shared some of these lessons with the thirty some incoming freshman and their parents on move-in day today.
First, we’re going to doubt our ability to do things as I am doing now at Boll Theatre. I know enough to be a good employee, but I make mistakes. Matt Evans is doing his job teaching me and answering my questions and reminding me to ask them. Ben Stone, a co-worker of mine working over the summer, on the other hand doesn’t like me asking questions; therefore, I don’t. When I ask a simple question, he gets upset at me for asking because the answer is obvious, right? He doesn’t say that, but instead, something like “it goes downstairs where it always goes” in a mean tone like after mom starts yelling at you because you ignored her request to carry up the laundry for her, which is understandable. With Ben, it goes like this.
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[First question] “Where do we keep the digital measuring tool?” => A nice response.
[Second question] “Do you know why this microphone isn’t working?” => Mean toned response.
Usually at this point, I stop because Ben is obviously pissed off at me and instead of asking a question, I’ll just shut up and take a best guess.
[Third question] or [simple mistake] or [misinterpretation] or [even if it’s not my fault but Ben’s]: “F#$%^&* STAND BY THE PODIUM!
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The second lesson coach said is “be patient.” I have to be patient with Ben. Maybe he’s right and I’m a bad employee who deserves to be called the F-word. I don’t really think I am, but sometimes he makes me feel like a piffling pile of poop. It’s happened enough times so I try not to let it wear off on me anymore, but sometimes it does. Or at the very least, I lost the confidence to do my job to the best of my ability for a short while. But because I’m patient, I hold my temper… I don’t make matters worse.
Now, that’s in conflict with facing my problems head on, which seems to work for others. That resolution is to face my conflict (him temporarily) right now and explain that I work differently. When I’m told something, I need to have it written down to get it done accurately. I need to be able to ask simple questions instead of guessing where a cable goes because sometimes that makes matters worse in the future.
I take the patient route. It’s a balancing act, but I think it works in my favor. Rick Chamberlin thinks so too. I’ve thought about quitting my job at Boll Theatre, but I never did.
And Ben Stone just F#$%^& shit up. I saw the two Solaframes just go out in red, textured patterns. And he just screwed up in a public event more than I ever had this whole summer.
Karma B%^&*
