Always mute yourself on Zoom

I was in Chemistry class, a supplemental course I was taking during the end of last year, and had free time after I finished the assigned practice problems, and so I decided to join my friends on Facetime.

“I hate doing these practice problems; I’m just so exhausted and I want to cuddle with Junior in bed,” I said to my friends.

“Um Lihi … you’re not muted,” one of the kids on my Zoom call said.

It was only 10 seconds of me talking, but it didn’t matter; I was completely mortified.

I did what any sane person would do: I muted myself, turned off my camera and ran out of my room so no one would see my face looking like a blotchy tomato. 

My friends on Facetime, who had heard everything, thought it was the funniest thing to ever happen. But I was still in shock, dreading the fact that I’d have to endure another half hour of class.

In the end, I was just grateful for the student who told me I wasn’t muted and saved me even more embarrassment, if that was even possible, so I profusely thanked them for getting me to stop talking once class was over.

Eventually, I rejoined the class and just waited for it to be over so I could wallow in my mortification. 

I apologized to the class and the teacher quickly accepted my apology in order to continue on teaching. He didn’t mention the mishap for the rest of the class, something I was grateful for as it eased my embarrassment a touch.

Since then, whenever I’m on a Zoom call, I make sure to triple check that I mute myself because I will never let myself go through that embarrassment again. 

Maybe the lesson I should have taken away from this is to never join a Facetime call during class, but you know, those problems really were boring.