I'm nothing if not lazy, so I had the students do that irritating exercise in which they introduce themselves and lie unconvincingly about why they're in my class. (The only honest answer: "I need this credit to graduate.") One student suggested that we describe the worst job we ever had, and I thought that had potential, so I added that particular pony to the show.
The pony turned out to be quite the dog indeed.
"I was in the infantry, killing people and learning how to switch off caring," said an older student. I tried to fill the stunned silence by asking him questions, but it got worse. He was kicked out of the army. He was bitter. He said they trained him to kill, broke down his soul, never rebuilt it, and scraped him off on society. Unable to stop emoting in my class, he then described his post-traumatic stress in detail. He used the word "killing" a half-dozen times.
A numb girl went next. "Uh, I worked at Starbucks..."
Trying to salvage the afternoon, I asked her what the most annoying type of customer is. She wrinkled her face in disgust.
"Foreigners."