can you repeat that?

today i was in the canteen line and there was a boy and a girl in front of me, and the girl was obviously flirting with the boy. but during the conversation, something which happens a lot, happened; but this time to a whole new extreme. this is how it went down.

'hey, i have to go to the library after lunch' says the boy

'wait what?' responds the girl

'i said i have to go to the library after lunch' the boy repeats

'what? i have something on my face?!' said the girl, nervously and surprised.

basically, what happened is that the girl misheard the boy, and quite badly as well, which is slightly embarrassing, but more importantly, interesting.


it made me think, do the sentences we come up with when we mishear someone, tell us anything about what we are feeling, what we think of the person we are talking to, or do they reveal a deeper side of our character.


this is quite similar to the idea of the 'Freudian Slip' named after Sigmund Freud. the theory of the 'Freudian Slip' is as follows (off wikipedia)

'A Freudian slip, or parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious ('dynamically repressed') wish, conflict, or train of thought. The concept is thus part of classical psychoanalysis.'

if this is so, then i believe that the girl made a 'Freudian Slip' and i've inferred from this slip that the girl must have been to some extent, self conscious whilst she was talking to the boy. 

i remember when i was younger, in fact we were still on the other campus, and my friends and i were having a discussion at lunch. this is how this conversation went

'oh my god, euan totally shaves his legs' said one girl

to which i replied 'oh my god, euan likes seamus's legs?!'

we all laughed, but it makes me think now, what does that say about me or my feelings towards euan? there was no seamus in the year so that presumption of what the girl had said was even more bizarre. it is mean for me to say this, but i do remember that we all though euan was a bit strange, so that could have had something to do with it.

maybe there is more truth to be found in not what we say, but what we think we hear? there was a quote that we talked about in class the other day. i don't quite remember the quote or who it was by but it went along these lines

'a word is half the person saying it, and the other half, the person hearing it'

maybe if we spent more time mumbling and less time listening then we would hear more truths about ourselves and one another than we would in a deep and meaningful conversation. would life be better if we were all more open about our opinions? if we were self-conscious and we just admitted it?

however, maybe it is a good thing that these 'Freudian Slips' are so infrequent, because in that way, we can of course save ourselves from awkward and uncomfortable moments where our subconscious desire may or may not get the better of us. just imagine if we had much less control of our psyche and things like this happened all the time,

boy approaches girl 'hi, how are you today?'

'wait what? you love me and think i'm beautiful?! oh my gosh i totally like you too!' shrieks girl.

boy walks away.

thank god for our need to shield our true desires from one another.