You've probably been there.

You were sitting in class, completely lost in whatever mumbo jumbo your professor is trying to teach you. You raise your hand and ask your professor a question to figure out what the heck is happening. That is when you hear quiet laughter somewhere in the room and see some of your classmates scoffing. Your professor may have even stared in shock before addressing you as if you were a child on a subject that apparently should have been obvious.

Dejected, you shrink back into your seat. No more questions for the rest of class, lest you be judged again. Everyone already thinks you're dumb.

If you have ever been in that situation, you can take solace in the fact that you are not alone. It plays out in college classrooms every day. It certainly does for me.

As a college freshman who started taking some classes with mostly upperclassmen this semester, feeling absolutely stupid every time I spoke in class was something I had to get used to. For a while, I just stopped asking questions in class altogether.

But then I realized I was wasting my time in class by keeping silent. What was the point of going to class if I was going to let my fear of snickering and scoffing prevent me from deepening my understanding of the subject matter?

Was it really worth pretending to be smart just to avoid embarrassment?

I started asking my dumb questions again, and while I still elicit the normal reactions, I've felt more confident in class than I've felt all year.

So, if you have ever been tempted to keep your silence because you are scared of others considering you dumb, don't give in. Keep asking your questions even if they sound silly and stupid as long as you truly think they are important for augmenting your knowledge.

If you feel dumb for not knowing something, the experience is still worth it; you now know what things you ought to have a better grasp of. Feeling dumb in class shows that you are learning and hopefully challenging yourself in class.

Of course, don't just ask questions for the sake of making noise. Ask them because you need to know to deepen your understanding of what you came to class to learn.

It's better to sound dumb for one class session and learn than to sit in silence and remain ignorant. Besides, every time you ask a "dumb" question, you are probably providing a huge relief to the other people in your class who might have been too afraid to ask it themselves.

So who's the dumb one now?