Attention span

On Wednesday I did a test and discovered that I actually have really bad English comprehension skills.

This makes sense, I suppose. When I read books I find I’m several pages after the last thing I understood. Or I’ll re-read same paragraph over and over thinking what does this mean? And only partly because I’m being philosophical.

To me, the sentence “The cat sat on the mat” comes across as “The cat was probably in a room.” Then I'll get confused later when the cat is frolicking in the bushes and chasing butterflies because the last I knew the cat was locked indoors. And then I start wondering if the property has an open living plan or a veranda and I’m still reading but I’m thinking about the architecture of the premises and suddenly the book is over and I’m asked to provide a summary and all I can remember is that there was a house and a cat was involved somehow.

Even when talking to health care professionals I miss half the information. I’ll come out of the appointment thinking, “What’s wrong? Take how often? Follow up when?” Then I decide “do what you feel like” is acceptable, and that going to the park and following birds around will fix everything. Though, this often does fix everything. Having a short attention span is sometimes a blessing.



Obviously it’s not always such a good thing to have a short attention span. When talking to my friends, I’ll ask them a question and about 30 seconds in I know I’m already behind and I have to pick up words and piece the information together again. So I’ll get the gist of what is going on, but I fall down when it comes to specifics. Luckily the phrase “Oh wow” usually gets me through when it comes to human interaction.

But my inattention to detail gets in the way in a professional setting. My last job had a lot of intricacies, and I found myself asking about a million questions a day. I kind of knew I already knew the answers, and my supervisor knew I already knew the answers, but he’d indulge me. Then the next day I’d come to the same hurdle and we’d have to jump it together again. I think a lot of the problem there was a lack of self confidence rather than me not understanding. I like people figuratively holding my hand through things. I wish literally holding people’s hands wasn’t so weird; I think I’d like that too.

So I don’t know if this is a semiotic issue or if I really just can’t focus. Or if I have early onset dementia. I'm not sure how I made it through my degree, with lecture notes like these:





But at least I know how to make myself feel better about it all.