To Pee or Not to Pee: A BA’s Lesson in Clarity

2-hours in, and the sweat was in free-flow mode, gushing down my head like someone had turned on a faucet. I had studied. I was as prepared as I could possibly be. This wasn’t anxiety or at least, not the exam kind. The pressure was coming from a much more urgent place.

The instructions had not been clear on bathroom breaks, and I was dangerously close to pissing myself.

My brain?

Completely checked out. None of the questions made sense anymore. Another hour at this rate would be relentless torture.

This exam had been three years in the making, start-stop self-learning, all leading to this one moment. A 3-hour sitting to prove I was a professional, competent and certified.

Suffice it to say, my bladder was on a mission to throw all of that away.

To pee or not to pee, that had become the question.

Come to think of it, the whole situation was basically a misunderstood requirement waiting to derail the outcome. Just like in a project, when something’s unclear and you don’t clarify, you risk everything going off the rails.

What I needed at that moment wasn’t more preparation it was clarity. And getting that clarity was as simple as asking the adjudicator if bathroom breaks were allowed.

So I did.

Relief.

I have come to believe that sometimes, we get in our own way just to save face. We avoid asking the “dumb” question—the one that could make or break a project.

But more often than not, clarity only comes when we are bold enough to speak up.

Sometimes, the smartest thing you can do... is to stop holding it in.

Literally and figuratively.