Signals

[Amberxiao]

This is really interesting. A friend of mine recently told me that she wasn't at all surprised I was a switch, because I apparently give off switch signals (what the heck are those?)

This surprised me. While I often feel domly at restaurants, I've always thought that I probably seem more of a sub to most people. I tend to be very polite and helpful, with a strong tendency to apologize more than I need to. When I was a teacher (T. A., actually), my greatest weakness was that I would give the students way too much leeway and gave in on things I shouldn't have. I was also probably too generous of a grader.

I don't want to be that way. I understand the value in being a challenging teacher because all of *my* favorite teachers were challenging, and I generally didn't care so much for the easy ones.

I know this is sort of off the subject, but it's one of the things that's always disturbed me. This feeling that other people see me as more submissive than I actually am AND that I can't seem to bring out my dominant side even when I know it would be the best thing I could do for my students (obviously, I'm not talking sexual dominance here: I don't plan on having inappropriate relations with students, except, perhaps, in fiction, but in that case, it would be a character of mine, not me, anyway).

[Hime]

I know this is sort of off the subject, but it's one of the things that's always disturbed me. This feeling that other people see me as more submissive than I actually am AND that I can't seem to bring out my dominant side even when I know it would be the best thing I could do for my students (obviously, I'm not talking sexual dominance here: I don't plan on having inappropriate relations with students, except, perhaps, in fiction, but in that case, it would be a character of mine, not me, anyway).

Can I be your student?

I have the plaid skirt and everything!