The Secret Dancer in Me

The first time I saw this scene from the UK version of _The Office_, I thought I was going to die! I loved that the character would do such a ridiculous thing in the middle of a huge group of co-workers. The whole thing made me cringe and laugh at the same time.

And this is how _The Office_ works; it makes you laugh because it makes you uncomfortable. It makes you uncomfortable because it taps into that dark little part of yourself that is always about to make a jerk out of you in public (usually in front of a bunch of important people).

We're all just a synapse-fire away from breaking-it-down (and probably badly) robot-style--accompanying ourselves with our own soundtrack--in front of our co-workers, classmates, public officials and, worst of all, our innocent pets.

I know I have to work hard to keep the jerk side of me (like, Steve Martin's _The Jerk_)



under control. But she's always there, just under the surface, about to make everyone either laugh or cringe.

I have to admit that part of me wonders if this willingness to make a fool out of myself makes me a good teacher or just a plain idiot. But I have this little feeling that this strangeness is JUST what makes students like me; it makes me funny, approachable, and a (maybe) little more like them.

And I think most of them like that. Or at least they pretend to...

Maybe they're just scared I'll bust out into "the robot" in front of them... or worse: The Cabbage-Patch.

...not like they remember that dance...