You've reminded me of one of my darkest moments. Back in Air Force basic training, one day early on, they marched my group of about fifty raw, fuzzy-headed recruits into a classroom and proceeded to administer some kind of hocus pocus occupational/ psychological test. Stuff like where they would ask you a question once, then seventy questions later they ask you the same question to see if you answered the same way. I imagine they probably paid some quietly snickering Beltway consultant a pasha's ransom for it.
Anyway, we all filled out the test, handed it in, and sat there for about fifteen minutes while they ran our little pencil marks through the pencil mark-reading computer. The guy comes back in the room. And calls my name. Just mine.
What you have to understand is that in basic training, this is the ultimate horror. To be singled out in any way whatsoever. You spend six weeks or so trying to be as anonymous as possible, because in general, anything where you get singled out is invariably very very bad. I stood to attention at my desk, about losing my water at the prospect of being contemptuously informed that their diabolical test had spotted some psychotic quirk or something and that I should pack up my duffle bag and move on.
But actually, they were only having me do the language test for language school. Deeeeeeeep breath..... |
