Strictly Serial

Many years ago, I thought of myself as a mentally flexible person, capable of doing several divergent things in combination. Wednesday night’s long-form improv class forced me to accept that I’m not a multi-stream thinker. I already knew that I get in to absorption mode and don’t process thoughts/emotions until I get to the car or am staring at the ceiling.

Wednesday’s class cemented just how inflexable I am. I couldn’t go from the observational period to the question/answer period. I sat there for fifteen minutes listening to those around me as questions and all I could do was sit there and say to myself that I hadn’t processed anything yet. I observe then I process. I can’t observe and process concurrently.

In thinking about thoughout the week, I had to finally say, that from a making-my-brain work standpoint, I can do one type of thing for a period of time and then switch off to another. I am not however one of those people that makes the transition quickly. So, world I am a strictly serial thinker. Ask me to evaluate, analize, process, observe, choose or design all you want I am capable of doing all those things. But, please, ignore me when I get cranky about disturbance as I focus on the task at hand and give me more than a moment to switch gears.