I’ve already mentioned that I was suppose to attend a conference, but it got delayed. I wrote about that in Business trip post. Well I came back from that conference last night and here are my impressions.
The organization of this 3 day long conference was really good. I was pleased with the room I got (a nice quiet room, considering the fact that I slept like a baby and others were complaining about the parties that young people organized). The theme of the conference was related to the position of the youth, youth laws/policies and the youth influence trough the projects they’re writing/applying/implementing. I work as an independent project management associate in a municipal institution and one of my duties is to coordinate and work around the relationship between the youth and municipality related to the projects they apply or write. Sorry if this sounds confusing, I did my best to simplify.
Misophonia being in heaven at the conference:
- sleeping in the room I got.
-I was late to the lunch on one occasion and when I came there the restaurant was already empty. I ate completely alone in that huge empty space and waiters were really kind. Needless to say, I took my time and enjoyed.
Misophonia being in hell at the conference:
- some lecturers there and some people I met.
There were almost 200 participants there. We, municipal representatives were in a group of 26 people. The rest were all young people.
The first lecture was about inconsistencies in some laws. Lawyers would be ok to hear that but I was really trying to listen actively. I was tired from the trip and on top of that the lecturer was Miso nightmare. She’s about 30 years old (my age) and acted like she know everything there is to know. She would give the word to one of the participants often and while he/she would be speaking she would be nodding and saying “Hm, hm.. but” and constantly interrupting that person. My eyes didn’t know where to look when looking at her. I couldn’t decide if her gesticulation was more pronounced or her facial expressions.
The tone of her voice sounded like squeaking to me. She used the same repetitively way and tone of her voice when accentuating something really important. And everything was really important to her. If I closed my eyes I would hear that squeaking sound of her voice combined with the effort of not inhaling the air until the sentence is finished. With my eyes open that combination of her voice, gesticulation, body moves and facial expressions were killing me. I had to listen to her for 3 hours! She sucked the life out of me.
The next lecturer was completely fine. Actually, during those three days, some of the lecturers I liked a lot. They did gesticulate, accentuate important thing while speaking but I didn’t mind at all. Their energy was very pleasing. I could listen and look at them without any trouble. “Normal”, nice and funny people. One of them wasn’t able to correctly pronounce some letters. I was noticing that but I didn’t mind at all. Also he gesticulated much, but again, I didn’t mind him, he seemed like a really nice person.
I was enjoying one of those pleasant sessions for an hour maybe. I was in a heaven, forgot there is something called Miso. Until…. The guy next to me took a sip of water. That caught me completely off guard. I swear I was splashed by the largest wave at that moment. Two hundred people were at that hotel during the conference. Sounds were happening all the time and every where, but for me, the loudest sound of that conference was the sound that 17 years old guy made that very moment. He took a sip of water! God, how stupid is that!?
One of the lecturers was a guy with whom I often work with and talk on the phone. He’s a sleeping pill to me. Really. Every time I see or hear him I immediately want to sleep. When I hear the ringing of my mobile and see his name on the screen I think: “Ok, here we go” it’s like someone pushed my button for sleeping. The theme of his lecture was important and I had to make myself listen actively, but my eyes were closing while he was speaking. Sometimes I miss the words coming out his mouth because all I’m focused is the tone of his voice and the way he use it. I don’t really trust in hypnosis but I think he could easily hypnotize me.
So there were three types of lecturers: annoying kind, sleeping pill kind, and enjoyable kind.
The final day involved television, reporters, photographers etc. They hired a TV host for the event. He was extremely annoying with his “Applause” commands. He would say “Applause” in totally inappropriate moment and people followed his commands. His “Applause” made me twitch every time I hear it.
I thought the lunch time will be the most annoying but it wasn’t. I would be concentrating on my plate, put the phone next to it and browsing the web while I was eating. Yes, people wanted to talk and I did talk a bit. I was trying not to be that rude. Lots of people eating in the restaurant have some advantages. There were lots of noise happening there and I could ignore the person beside me and the person opposite of me.
And that was it… A conference trough the eyes of Misophonia.
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