Before coming to college I was told to take advantage of high school teachers because college professors will not care about your personal success as they do. I listened to what they were saying of course but did not fully register the message until I realized I had to teach myself material that I am paying a ton of money to be taught. Professors are very well-versed in their subject areas, but they aren't all that great at teaching it nor do they don't care if you truly learn it. For example, I have shown up more times to class than one of my professors have and I have been stood up twice for a mandatory meeting with another professor.

I started to wonder if some professors even care at all about me or if they are just worried about their paychecks, until now...

Recently in my foreign language class, I gave a wrong answer when called on and my professor stopped the entire class to explain how we all need to read his instructions more carefully, instead of just doing our own thing. I was honestly confused and assumed I was doing it right all along, but he continued to go on a rant about how we don't always put in the amount of work that is required to do well in his class and he was disappointed because he really wants to see us all get A's. He seemed extremely upset, like a parent strongly disciplining their young child for breaking something.

At first, we were all taken aback and did not know how to react, so we all looked around the room at each other and sort of laughed about what was going on. I think we reacted this way because we were embarrassed since this type of speech had never been given by a professor before.

Well, our professor did not like that response and actually called us out for it. He asked why we were laughing because he felt as though we were laughing at him. He explained that it is a common thing for us to look at one of our classmates and giggle while he is trying to teach and he feels as though we are making fun of him. He told us that we actually have hurt his feelings before.

I was in complete shock. Do professors have feelings? Does he care what we think of him? He's not just a lecturing robot, that likes to give hard exams? Yes, he like everyone else in the room is a human and he shares the same feelings that we have, he does care what others think of him, and no one is truly a robot, even if it seems as though they are emotionless.

We then explained to our professor that when we turn to friends and seem to be laughing, it is not at him, but rather because we are embarrassed by our wrong answer or of merely just speaking in front of the class. He kept asking why we couldn't give him the same respect back that he gives us, and none of us truly realized we were ever being disrespectful.

Basically, this whole experience gave me a whole new perspective on social cues and the kind of message you are giving out to others. I think we all can be more aware of how we react to situations.

For example, it can be assumed that at least someone is paying attention to us at all times when in public, so it is important to be conscientious of the vibe we are putting out. Otherwise, you'll be unknowingly causing someone a lot of pain while they think they are doing something wrong, or as in my case where my professor spent an entire class period apologizing for not being good at his job, when in fact he is phenomenal became he actually cares about his students and their grades.

At the end of class, we all explained to him that we think he is an incredible professor and apologized for making him feel that way.

I don't want this type of miscommunication for anyone else, because it is painful for both parties. Therefore, give your best friend your full attention when they are talking to you, so they don't think that you don't care about them. Smile at a stranger, so you don't think you are judging them. Don't laugh at presenters because they took time out of their lives to prepare for you and you don't want them to feel like that effort is not appreciated. Just analyze the situations you are in before you react. The way we treat people is very important and even just one good interaction can make all the difference for someone.

I'm glad I got to skip a boring lecture for this in-depth conversation with my professor, but I also wish I never gave him a reason to feel the need to apologize for his teaching skills. If my classmates and I would have just been more mindful of the message we were sending through body language and actions, I'm sure we would have made a much more positive impact on this man.

Let's all make positive impacts on people by understanding social cues and acting respectfully on them.