You like your morning class.

Sure, it is lecture only but your teacher makes the effort to share some corny jokes and interesting anecdotes to keep you all from falling asleep.

After the latest short story, your teacher asks a question about the material and that is when this student’s hand goes up.

Everybody knows more about this student more than they care to and you could swear that even the teacher hesitated before calling on them.

Everyone is about to fall victim to the serial storyteller.

He or she loves to talk about himself or herself.

Every time the teacher calls upon him/her to answer a question, you get more than you ever wanted.

You learn another tidbit about his or her childhood, his weekend, his service in the military, his favorite movie or his or her disgusting boil he had on his butt that made it uncomfortable for him to sit in a classroom desk.

So he explains to the class his extensive recovery process that he must now suffer through because of the complexion of his back side.

If it is anything less than listening to him share another story, the recovery is manageable.

The difference between the serial storyteller in which people loathe and another student who shares interesting stories is the connection to the lecture.

The teacher connects personal experiences with lecture material in a way to engage and draw interesting analogies.

The storyteller will take any question as a cue to talk about whatever pops into his or her head.

A teacher will explain hereditary traits necessary for survival and throw a Lady Gaga “Born This Way” reference in there to see who is paying attention — hey, a pop culture reference.

The storyteller uses this opportunity to talk about the Lady Gaga concert he or she went to because she is the biggest fan in the world and has all of her CDs and wishes she could get her hair to look like that because she wants to be unique and different, and oh my goodness why has no one stopped her from rambling on for this long?

They take the focus off the material and make it all about their stories.

They just want to talk about themselves and do not realize that if people were interested in hearing about their stories that people would come up to them and simply ask.

There is, however, a special power that the serial storyteller has that confuses me and makes me smile at the same time.

They have the ability to bring people together. Not around themselves, of course, but around each other.

The students dislike the storyteller so much that they bond over it.

It is a commonality in which people relate.

How many friendships blossomed because of the digression of this one person?

It is why my feelings toward these types of people are so torn.

I have made friends this way and have the storyteller to thank for it.

If you have made a friend in a similar way, be sure to thank your serial storyteller if he or she can stop talking about himself or herself long enough for you to get a word in.

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