For some reason, one embarassing moment of my life keeps popping up in my head from time to time. It happened when I was in 5th grade, but I can’t seem to get past it. I guess I might as well share it with everyone.

Here’s the story: I was in school and the teacher asked a question something like, “What are the people who ride race horses called?” It probably wasn’t just like that, but that’s the idea. I raised my hand and when called on I said the answer was ‘disc jockey’. Everyone in the class proceeded to laugh and I was awfully embarassed. I was one of the smart kids in school so the laughter was probably intensified as a result.

More details: Earlier that week, I had been reading an Archie or Richie Rich comic and one of the mini one-page comics involved a play on the term ‘disc jockey’. In the final frame, it showed a jockey all geared up riding on a giant record album. There were reins and everything. It was pretty funny for a little comic, but it went completely over my otherwise fairly quick 5th grade head. I didn’t know what a disc jockey was, I guess, and I assumed that the joke was showing how funny it was that people who ride horses were called ‘disc jockeys’. It seemed odd at the time, but Archie and Richie Rich had never let me down before and I took it at face value. I did realize my mistake later, after I had already embarrassed myself thoroughly.

I never really wanted to raise my hand and answer any questions for pretty much the rest of my school life. That situation continued clear through college, though I didn’t actually know the answers most of the time in college so it might not really count. I guess I was an unusually sensitive child and I think that moment really affected me. I was already shy and it sealed that into me even further. Up until now, I hadn’t made this connection, but I had noticed that this disc jockey situation had stayed in my mind for whatever reason.

Maybe my mind will be able to let this go now that I’ve revealed the fact that once in 5th grade I didn’t know the difference between a jockey and a disc jockey. Wish me luck!