It Is In The Writing

Fall Quarter Update

I thought Fall Quarter was fine and exceptional. I met new friends, had amazing adventures, and did well in most of my classes.

However, one of my teachers didn't think of it that way, what with my grade in his class. The Poverty class that I took last quarter--the one where I had to go out of my way to climb cardiac hill just do to homework at that specific computer lab, the one where the teacher belittles our intelligence and competence to understanding the material on a regular basis, the one where I admittedly refused to attend some classes because of these above reasons... that class, decided to drop my GPA last quarter.

So, today I went to go to see an advisor. However, before I went into the college office, I went to the mailbox next door to check for junk mail. Instead, what I found was a christmas card from my friend, Rachel. It was probably the christmas card she originally sent before I told her my other address. The card has a decorated tree on the front with a shiny and textured silver border around it. On the inside of it, she wrote in her pretty cursive handwriting:

Did you know?

R.H. Macy failed 7 times before his store in New York caught on. English novelist John Geasey got 753 refection slips before he published 564 books. Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 home runs. Don't worry about failure, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.

--Published in the Wall Street Journal--

I thought this seemed really fitting and almost even cosmic. Happening to just pick this letter up from the mailbox that I wasn't even going to check (expecting to have junk mail if anything seeing as I already checked it the day before) and to have those words in the christmas card (instead of just an ordinary "seasons greetings!" message) can only be described as an act of fate, as a beacon of good tidings to come.

I was recommended to ask for Ursula by everyone in Kresge from what it seems, so I sat down with her. She was very nice about everything and not even the slightest bit condescending. I handed her my paperwork and she felt that I knew what I was doing and understood that that class was a fluke. She recognized that I understood how things worked and she told me what to do to get my GPA back up and the best way to do it. She even caught something that I hadn't noticed on my transcript, a general ed requirement that I didn't satisfy yet before transfer because of its recent addition into the portal, and she fixed it so that I didn't have to fulfill that requirement...

Basically, Ursula is amazing. She even has a little pen holder on her desk in the shape of Ursula the sea witch from The Little Mermaid.

So now, with my grief and frustration behind me and with these serendipitous words of wisdom I obtained, I feel more determined to work even harder now!

Here's to better grades this next quarter!