Mike had me cornered and intimidated...

Mike had me cornered and intimidated...
I think I´ll stick to Alfredo
By: Gina Yoryet Roman
November 17, 2011


My Sunday commitment with this game of words has been hitting the skids for the last couple of weeks. Creativity and lack of motivation are going downhill I don’t know why.
Perhaps my laziness has to do with the upcoming holidays. The aroma, the slight change in weather, the colors, the dry leaves, the Christmas decorations people are starting to put up, the music, daylight saving time, put me on a numb mode. I move in a much slower sequence, all I want to do is eat and sleep, relax and kick back and I find it rather difficult to get back into sequence but here I go once again.

It’s been almost two weeks since I last had Alfredo and I can’t wait to get my hands on him.
Last Thursday and Friday I spent the whole day with “Mike.”
Instead of having him, this “Mike” REALLY had me and he was really in control of me.
As much as I avoided making eye contact with him, there he was, tracking me down, watching every one of my moves. Counting my heart beats and registering every breath I took.
Such proximity with strangers has always made me feel very uncomfortable so having a faceoff with Mike made me PANIC majorly. I quickly pulled off some tactics to gain self-control so I closed my eyes to pretend he wasn’t there but it was impossible.
At one point I felt like letting go of him and run for my life but the minute I did that, he would’ve prevailed and as the tough woman I am, I gained back my courage, grabbed him, held him tightly with both hands and showed him who was in power.

One of my colleagues and I, worked as Interpreters at a Polygraphy Training (for the Ciencias Forenses y Criminología within Mexico) given at a local hotel. Most of the time Interpreters sit on the back of the room in a small cabin using a MIK-rophone and the audience is listening to everything the Interpreter says so we are under constant pressure and responsibility because not only do we have to memorize the material in both languages within a short time frame, but we better make sure that the right message is conveyed.

The stress is even more when the trainer has an amazing profile like the one last week. This man’s profile is something not ever seen before. When I asked my client to send me a brief profile or CV, I thought it was a book!

The reason why Mike had me shivering with his imposing presence is because I have NEVER been a public speaker. When I was in college I took speech class three semesters in a row before I got a passing grade! Finally to get over my fear, I was “obligated” to have a beer (so I could relax and stop shaking) before dragging myself to stand up in front of the class.
When I am an expert at a topic it doesn’t really matter how many people are present but with new issues there is always fear and anxiety involved. Now once I get comfortable I can hide my panic and easily control the shaking. Like they say in México, “Me asusta pero me gusta.”

On the other hand, my colleague doesn’t have the slightest problem with standing up in front of millions of people. She’s very outgoing and expressive, the total opposite of me so we made a perfect match.

I had slowly taken control of Mike when he suddenly started acting up! Everyone was having problems hearing because of the static interference so then my colleague said to the trainer, “Don’t worry, we can stand up right next to you and interpret as you go!”
At that moment I wanted to duck under the desk and come out until the conference was over but luckily I was able to control that impertinent “Mike” even though he had me sweating big time!

Don’t know when I’ll see Mike next but he really had me suffering so I much rather keep Alfredo…
At least he gives me momentary pleasure!