It was more years ago than I can believe that I handed in my very first upper level undergraduate history paper.
I remember two things about that paper.
One, I got an “A.”
Second, I remember a very small correction that the professor had made to the paper.
I had written a sentence that went something to the effect of “Obviously…[brilliant history thought here]”
Submitted as crisp black on white, this paper was returned to me with a stark red line cutting through the word “Obviously.” In the margin next to that, the professor had scribbled, “Obvious to WHOM?”
I don’t remember what that paper was about.
But I remember that correction.
I still use that word a lot. You should know that I would use it twice as much if it hadn’t been for that professor, though.
In fact, I would say that this one thing has impacted who I am today in the most significant of ways. I find that I am a lot less angry when someone disagrees with me, for example, if I don’t assume that my point of view, the collection of my experiences and what I believe is some obvious and completely natural conclusion.
Why would what I believe be obvious to you?
Have you lived my life?
Read the books I’ve read?
Known the people I know?
Nothing is obvious if you think about it.
Your thoughts?
They are not obvious to me. I need to know what you know for that to happen. I need you to tell me why you think what you think. We both need to put aside our need to be right in order to just know at first.
I’m a very different human being than I was before I got that one correction back.
It’s funny, the small things that make such a big difference.
Photo Credit: James Sarmiento
This unassuming post is music to my brain. Seriously.
Ha — I edited an “obviously” out of something earlier today. I reread it and it sounded condescending although that wasn’t the intent. I love seemingly small but really useful lessons that stick with us over time.
Thanks for this, such a good reminder!
It’s funny what experiences shape our daily lives, isn’t it?
@Robin,
Yes Robin it is. Today and for the past 20 years I have experienced the dining pleasure of a two-scoop, chocolate-chip, ice cream cone which I now wear on a daily basis.
How dare you tell me that “my obvious” is not what everyone should believe…;-) Yet another perfect bit of writing,,ummm..I mean thoughts.
In elementary school, a teacher told me I made my 8′s incorrectly. I made two circles on top of each other because I believed they looked better that way. In my conference, she discussed my 8′s with my mother who couldn’t have cared less. I began writing my 8′s as taught until I went to college and did them the way I always wanted because I still think they look better. There is no moral to this little story except that I am still bitter. The end. Perhaps I should look for the deeper meaning in my 8 situation.
VERY good point. The minute I learn something, I assume the rest of the world knows it too and I was just the last to know… Completely inaccurate assumption, thanks for the reminder!
Is it better if I say “clearly” instead?
Although, you know, it’s funny now that I think about it that I use both “clearly” and “obviously” a little less frequently now than I used to. I wonder if that’s yet another way that you’ve changed me…
Of course, it could also be the therapy.
@Miss Britt,
In my experience, when people (especially lawyers and progressive preachers like Al Sharpton) use the term, “clearly,” nothing could be less clear than the point they allege to be so clear. Is that clear?
And to drive the point home, nothing in history is obvious – it is only as it is perceived by the author.
I prefer obliviously… most people don’t notice the difference.
Wow – so simple yet something to really consider.
@Tracy,
Hmmmmm I am thinking that we are perhaps over-intellectualizing this business of using the term, “obviously.” Just sayin’ …
I think I use “obviously” (and “clearly”) in a tongue-in-cheek fashion much more frequently than I use it seriously. I have learned, as I’ve gotten older, to tone down the arrogance of my convictions. I wish I had learned it much earlier in life, but my arrogance was very big and I had a tendency to cling to it.
Obviously Bossy has been doing it wrong her whole life. Thanks for this.
I started typing a response that had nothing to do with the point of your post, and it was about twice as long as what you wrote…so I stopped. But you did inspire me for a post of my own for next week, so there’s that.
I would have had fun with you back in the day. I loved arguing with people who OBVIOUSLY thought they were right all the time. Probably because I always thought I was right back then too. I now know that I almost never was. But I still get a bit of a kick out of arguing with someone who is absolutely certain they are right about something. Even if I agree with them.
What fabulous food for thought.
I had a similar experience in high school… a teacher emphatically telling the class not to use the word “obviously” — “because if it’s obvious, you shouldn’t have to tell me that it’s obvious.”
So I don’t use the word. Unless I’m being snarky.
If something’s obvious to me and not to everyone else, is that my fault? Nah.
Ooooh. As someone who often has to google the words she thinks she’d like to use to actually find out what they mean–I like this reminder.
Cool story.
I’ve noticed that using Twitter actually increases my wordplay capabilities because I have to work at getting my point across with more succinct use of words. It’s like what happens to your brain when trying to fit concepts into a Haiku.
PS. It’s better if you use the word “Obviously” as the entire sentence. It makes your point for you.
Obviously.
This was obvious advice to me that I am obviously not supposed to mock or snark at…obviously. However I am 240 pounds of child so I obviously have to say something using obviously in it.
All that being said it should be obvious that I really did enjoy this post or I obviously wouldn’t have commented upon it.
Wow! Whoever wrote on your paper was either a total jerk or the most subtly brilliant teacher ever! Whichever he is, I am sure that he is very proud of you.
@Craig Friend,
It’s not possible he was both? :-\
When Faiqa says that she wrote a “history” paper, what she really means is that she wrote an wonderful fictional story about the past. Faiqa, after all, is a disciple of the late Edward Said, the America-hating American citizen and professor of English Literature who wrote fictional stories about America and called them post-modernist history. But let’s keep this on the QT. I don’t want to get on Faiqa’s *hit list again. lol