The Un-Comfort Zone II by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. My Shadow Work Exhumed a Forgotten Bully I’ve written many times that I was bullied as a kid. It caused me to become a loner because I found it was safer to play alone. This, in turn, influenced my becoming a nonconformist. When you feel like the whole world is full of bullies, it can make you want to be anything other than the norm. Now, as I do shadow work (which is a method of uncovering and healing repressed emotional wounds from our past which hold us back in the present), I realize I have a pattern of attracting bullies and narcissists into my life. Many of those bullies were probably drawn to my nonconformity because bullies tend to attack anything different from the status quo. Exploring my past wounds helped me recall a nearly forgotten public speaking class I took in college 47 years ago; a class where I felt bullied by the instructor. I’m surprised I took the class at all because at the time I was a premed major with no conscious intention of ever speaking in public. I believe what led me to take that class was my subconscious guiding me toward a lifelong goal of speaking, which had yet to make itself apparent. On a conscious level, I probably took the speaking class because my friends told me it was a fun easy “A.” It turned out to be anything but! At first, I was excited. We would give four speeches around seven minutes in length. Our first assignment was a compare and contrast speech. I had just finished reading Hunter Thompson’s book Hell’s Angels, so I gave a speech comparing and contrasting them to the fraternities and sororities on campus. The class roared in laughter. It was a thoroughly satisfying experience until I sat down and the professor gave me a failing grade, saying it was offensive. We were all shocked at her assessment. Later, I learned she was a sorority sponsor, which may have explained why she was upset; and how she treated me for the remainder of the course. Our next assignment was to read a famous speech from history. I chose Winston Churchill’s We Shall Fight on the Beaches. I read it in a gruff British accent. I brought a fat cigar, like those he smoked, and jabbed it at the audience to emphasize the words of the moving conclusion. The class gave me a rousing standing ovation; and again the teacher gave me an “F.” She said I was supposed to the read the speech in my own voice (she never told us). Our next speech was to include an audio visual aid. I had recently completed an emergency medical technician training course, and the importance of learning CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) was drilled into me. I borrowed a practice dummy from the hospital where I worked and dressed it in some of my clothes, including a ball cap. I asked the professor, in advance, to give my speech first. On the day of my speech, I made sure I was the first one in the classroom. I took the dummy out of its case and sat it on the first row next to my friend. Students entered from the rear and my classmates were so busy talking they didn’t notice what was in front. I opened my speech about the frequency of heart attacks, and how we need to be prepared. I then said a designated phrase and my friend used her foot to push the dummy out of its seat. Misjudging its weight, she gave it a pretty good kick, which caused 43 DECEMBER 2023 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Wilson Cont’d on page 44.
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