Have you ever felt like the cosmos is simply not happy with you, or is completely out to get you? It has been like I'm a puppet for some god on Olympus with really bad taste in jokes.
From my son being "misplaced" at on his first day of school to having bad news about a family member, this has officially been the worst week I've had in a very long time.
Monday began well, so I thought, with getting to school on time and finally being able to get a good run in before my first class. I knew that I had to pick my son up from school early. After speaking with the school and getting everything set up, it seemed things were going to work out. At 2:20 I arrive to get my son, but I'm unable to get in the school because the doors are locked. Much to my great annoyance after trying to call the office over 10 times with no answer, I start to get really frustrated. After a couple of irritating events outside the school, they finally locate my son. The lady that delivers him tells me, in more words, that he was "misplaced." Due to intense miscommunication and misdirection, the school neglected to tell me about some very important policies relating to picking up a child early from school. I had an hour of complete terror and worry when they couldn't locate my son, on top of that I couldn't even enter the building. As a result of this fiasco I completely miss my first class. Jolly good start to the week, wouldn't you say? It took me 4 hours to calm down after that incident, and multiple calls to family and friends for advice. Who wants to take their child to a school where they get misplaced? I'm happy to say my son was fine, shook up but fine. I sent the principal a lengthy email, and I was surprised when she wrote back being incredibly apologetic.
Later in the week I successfully lose my wallet, one of my computers crash, I get a minor stomach bug, I forget to bring some paperwork to the class I'm GAing, terrible news comes through about a family member, my son has come down with a cold, and finally, I come home one day and my cat has peed on my bed. Really? At this point I throw up their hands and say "What the F$%#!"
In light of all that it does seem like everything did eventually work itself out. My wallet was returned, I got over the stomach bug, I had a backup of my data lost, the class I'm GAing went fine, I was able to clean my sheets and cover, I'm sure my son will get over his cold and his school seems to be doing just fine now. There have been no more incidents at his school and the principal even emailed again in the following days, just to check in. The only unknown is the health of my family member.
The PhD program seems to be okay, I have a minor issue with the length of their syllabi, but other than that I have no complaints. I've never seem syllabi longer than maybe 10 pages, but here the standard is 25 pages. In the 7 years I've been in higher education, think I saw a 10 page syllabus once. Apparently there is a reason behind the length, and that reason has to do with miscommunication in the past. It will take me a while to get used to reading a syllabus that's the same length as some of my homework. Right now I'm focusing on getting through the first year and not making any judgements till after I've spent some real time here.
Overall, this week has been a test of my patience and resilience that I never want to go through again. Here's to hoping this coming week will be much better.
Cheers!
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