Today’s Positive Adjective:
Didactic
a) designed or intended to teach
b) intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment

Desi was younger than her classmates. She had never understood her “gifted” label and considered it a curse. Kids her age shunned her. They told her college would be different and the students would be more accepting. The undergraduates weren’t overt at excluding her because they knew better. They used more subtle tactics. Introduced as a brilliant young mind and they viewed her as competition.

Desi held her own in most of her classes. Solving math, statistics or programming problems only required the proper application of specific, known rules to derive the answer. Her grades followed another set of guidelines. It provided a nice, neat, logical package.

Drama class stressed her. Here, no laws applied, and the issues didn’t have easy solutions. Everything here was messy. Often there was no decisive correct response or the most popular one made no coherent sense. Desi considered Professor Tate a throwback to the hippies. She insisted her students “feel” and try to connect with their “deepest emotions.” The latest play proved no exception.

Desi had grown accustomed to her position. Her classmates cast her as the youngest child, the half-wit, and now a fool. While Desi understood the didactic nature of the assignment, the allocation seemed designed to humiliate her. She spoke with Professor Tate who told Desi it took intelligence to play the jester, and the two of them devised a plan. Desi read the script studying each part. When they performed this afternoon, a deeper plot would be revealed. Professor Tate assured her, the thespians would learn a valuable lesson.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer