Robert Germaux Author Guest Post - Seriously, Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously

I'm welcoming author Robert Germaux to the Bob Reads Books blog. Robert has just published his fourth book, Grammar Sex and Other Stuff, and he stopped by to share his meanderings on not taking ourselves so seriously. I'm with you, Robert! Welcome to my humble blog :)

“Seriously, Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously”

By Robert Germaux

We all get a little full of ourselves at times, some people more than others, but it’s only human to occasionally suffer from a somewhat self-inflated ego. The trick is to not let it get out of hand, to try to nip it in the bud, and for that, you usually need a little help. In my case, that help came in the form of a twelve-year-old kid early in my first year of teaching. I can’t remember exactly what the lesson was that day, but I’m sure it was something terribly relevant to the lives of my first-period seventh-graders, maybe proper punctuation of a business letter. At any rate, whatever it was, I was really into it, and I assumed my students were equally involved, especially one young man in the front row. He seemed totally engrossed in what I was saying, his eyes never leaving mine. And I thought, here it is, it’s happening exactly as I had imagined it would. My students, thirsting for knowledge, were hanging on my every word. Suddenly, the young man in the front row raised his hand, no doubt seeking further clarification on some salient point I had just explained. 

“Yes, Louis,” I said, eager to be of even more assistance in molding this young mind. “What’s your question?”

He pointed over my shoulder and out the window to a water tower atop a hill in the distance.

“How do they keep the water up in that thing?”

Lesson learned.

Ego deflated.

Thank you, Louis.

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ABOUT ROBERT GERMAUX

Robert Germaux and his wife Cynthia live outside of Pittsburgh. After three decades as a high school English teacher, and now a good many years into retirement, he is beginning to have serious doubts about his lifelong dream of pitching for the Pirates. Grammar Sex and Other Stuff is Bob’s first non-fiction book. You can find links to his first three novels (The Backup Husband, Small Talk and Hard Court) at his Amazon Author Page.