Here’s a very rough rant from this week. Not sure where it’s going, but it’s going somewhere.
In T-minus one week, I’ll be done with my seventh semester of college. Thank God!
Amazingly, I’m still passing all three of my classes! I’m holding two A’s and still have a solid C in precalculus, for which I’m proud of myself for achieving. I’m not just proud of myself for figuring out the material, but I’m also proud of myself for dealing with some of the most insufferably arrogant people I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with in college, to date.
Maybe I’m just overly sensitive because it’s the end of the semester and I’m tired, but I swear this semester’s classes have been full of the most annoyingly pompous people on the face of the planet. Don’t get me wrong, not everyone I’ve encountered has been that way. I’ve met some lovely peers this semester (as I’ve done every semester). But, the “know-it-all” types are always the loudest, and oh my God… they don’t know how to shut the hell up.
It’s one thing to be the “professor’s pet”. When nobody in the class wants to pipe up when the prof asks a question, then I’ll raise my hand and give my two cents in hopes of getting the ball rolling.
But it’s something completely else to interrupt the professor, mid-sentence, to say something that has basically nothing to do with what’s being discussed. And few things irritate me more than when I’m in the middle of asking a question, and the pompous asswipe three tables over tries to finish my sentence for me (worse, that person in question likes to follow me around after class to talk my ear off, probably because they’re a proud engineering major and are excited to hear that I’m merely considering going for engineering. I’m glad that I can drive and they don’t).
Unfortunately, I find my precalculus professor to be rather insufferable, too. She’s very good at doing math, but she’s not very good at communicating it, or at writing exams, or at helping students when they ask for it (trust me, I’ve tried going to her office hours several times this semester, and each time I left wholly disappointed by the experience).
Every exam she’s given us, thus far, either had typos that ruined the question altogether (which she had to throw out), and/or the questions were on things we never covered in class, on the notes, or in the homework (which explains why everyone failed the unit 3 exam). And/or the questions were so squished together on each page that there was very little room to show our work (which is required for us to get full credit).
Hell, on this latest exam, I damn near skipped two questions because there was absolutely no room to calculate (by hand), the X and Y intercepts, the asymptotes, and/or potential holes, as the graph graphics took up the majority of the space to do that work. The prof also wouldn’t allow anyone to use scratch paper (many of us asked). So, I just did my best to translate what I saw in my head onto the graphs, and left it at that. Based on the grade I got back, I don’t think she threw those questions out (even though she should’ve).
I can only hope that my Calculus 1 class and professor will be a little more fair and reasonable… But this is community college. We get what we pay for!
And don’t get me started on the courtesy (or lack thereof) expressed by the majority of my peers (and some of my professors) at college! As feral and crass as I can be, I actually have manners I instinctively display in public (at least, it seems that way).
Not only do I hold doors open for people (which seems like a dying art among my peers), but I’m sure to treat servers, custodians, and whoever else I encounter with respect and a smile, whether or not they truly deserve it. It makes me really sad to see how my servers’ eyes light up when I simply express basic thankfulness to them. Basic thankfulness that I once believed was common courtesy.
On the other hand, I can walk away from a less-than-pleasant interaction with someone knowing that I took the wind out of their sails by being kind, and not engaging with their nastiness. Clearly, they’ve got something going on with them that has nothing to do with me. I just happened to be caught in the crossfire.
While it sucks that far too many people are assholes in the world, I’ve long since accepted that people (including myself) are fallible. Hurt people hurt people. And we can’t take their insults and condescension personally. Instead, let it roll off one’s shoulders like the rain.
At least, that’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way.
To be continued…
