D24 called to complain about her lab partner. She has 2 lab classes. In 1 of them, you have the same lab partner all semester. And in the other class, you have to work with a different person for each lab.
Chock this experience up to one of those ‘adulting life lessons’ that we all go through in college (and later). D24 learned in this week’s lab that some people are really really really difficult to work with. D24 said lab partner was female, 21, from CA, and just flat out rude, snarky, passive-aggressive mean girl sort of behavior. Even refused to speak to D24 or respond to questions when D24 tried to engage with her during the lab.
D24 really just called to complain about this child parading around as an adult. D24 was pretty fired up about it. Unfortunately, that won’t be the first time she’ll have to work with somebody who’s rude or prickly. We’ve all been in that situation before. It sucks and it’s uncomfortable. And it’s extra hard when you really don’t have any option but to tough it out and figure out how to work with the person.
Even harder when that prickly, rude person is your boss. I’ve lived through situations like that before…that was a bit of a nightmare.
Or how about all of the group projects one ends up assigned to where 1 person in the group isn’t pulling their weight? That’s super frustrating, too.
Or the person in the group project/assignment who always shows up late, doesn’t respond to emails, texts, whatever? Also frustrating.
She said something I thought was interesting, though. “It’s kind of messed up when the 18 yr old has more emotional maturity than the 21 yr old.”
Whatever it takes! The magic ingredient in our case was a college that seemed exactly like the “stuffy, tiny and BORING OMG” (her words) high school her brothers attended.
D24 successfully got into the “Listening to Movies” Jan Term class for next January. Taught out of the music department. It’s basically a film score music appreciation class. Class description sounds really interesting. Half of the length of the class is going to be spent doing a scene-by-scene analysis of The Fellowship of the Ring and ET. Plus lots of other movies.
I really hope the professor includes a couple of movies that Hans Zimmer or Danny Elfman wrote the scores for!
It is amazing how 48 hours really changes everything. Now both kids have the summer job they really wanted,hahahaha! Next step is figuring out how to get all of the stuff S21 has accumulated over the past 4 years 800 miles and how S24 is going to get back and forth from school three times this summer with all of his crap.
Thanks for the review! Dr. Hubby and I watched ER when we were in college but he hasn’t enjoyed any medical tv shows since he started med school. But I mentioned it would be fun to see the actor that was the baby doctor on ER now be the old guy. Just like my husband lol!
Fun to see everyone’s updates, as always. D24 is having an absolute ball this year. I am so proud of her. Her roommate situation never improved; they just shared space. But she did great in the housing lottery for next year and got the triple she wanted with 2 lovely friends. Lots of pics online of the Fordham Finlay triple with spiral stairs. Decorating plans already well underway.
We have begun the college search again with D27. Doing a parallel search of colleges she could play her sport at the college level vs colleges she could play her sport at the club level. With the obvious priority being a college with the right academic and social fit. This is our fourth go round and DH and I have a bit of parental senioritis…but that is a good match for our fiercely independent 4th child!
D24 comes home May 10 and my world wandering S19 called me from Italy on my birthday and said he would be home for Mother’s Day!! I am so excited
Yes! Get this nightmare from the large state university front. In D24’s dance group (performing this weekend) there is a young woman who, every time my daughter uses a “big word,” repeats the word and laughs (daughter reports: “as if I had a mental problem. It makes me feel like I shouldn’t be talking”). Remember this happening to us . . . when we were in FOURTH GRADE!! Yikes. My daughter has never been around uneducated people trying to bully smart people (we made sure of that with strategic school choices). I told her to stay away from that person and anyone she associates with. Conformism is toxic!
There’s this guy on Youtube and Instagram that I stumbled across awhile ago named Jefferson Fisher who has all of these short videos full of very useful, practical advice on how to speak to & deal with toxic people. I’ve used a couple of his suggestions myself and it’s really effective!
You know what your D24 could do the next time Queen Bee Dance Party Girl mocks her use of a $5 word in a sentence? Wait 3-5 sec to respond. And then VERY VERY calmly, say to the girl, “You know, I could explain the definition of the word to you if you don’t understand.” But she’d have to do it in a tone of voice where she sounds genuine and not at all sarcastic. It will totally take the wind out of Queen Bee Dance Party Girl’s sails.
So S24’s club sports team has in fact made the Nationals tournament, so it is confirmed our upcoming schedule is drive out to St Louis next week and get him back home for a couple weeks, then he heads out early to Washington state for training, then we go out at the end of the month to join him for the tournament. Should be a lot of fun!
We will be there too! We attended Southwest Regionals in SoCal this past weekend and will be there at Nationals to cheer on D21’s team - thankfully this time a drive rather than a flight away. It’s a fun time for everyone, and some incredibly fierce competition.
S24 got an unfortunate finals schedule, back to back on Saturday and then again on Monday. But, just got some great news that he scored 25 points over class average on 3rd orgo exam! Takes a ton of pressure off keeping the A. He asked that this prove that he can handle all the overnights he’s doing. I can’t help it, I just always have a protect sleep mindset.
He had a busy 24 hour shift Saturday during spring weekend. It’s their big concert day before reading period. I guess lack of sleep from that is better than partying. He doesn’t drink at all, just always preferred more low key socializing.
Found out he got a position within the themed housing I had mentioned. They claim it’s 8 hours a week, but he said he’s heard it’s more like 3. Comes with a nice stipend. Doesn’t hear back on TA spot until next week so trying to wait it out as only has time to add one or the other.
S24 has the opposite finals schedule. One final on the very last day of finals, memorial day. Unfortunate for a totally different reason.
He is also waiting on TA position which will hopefully come out this week. I cant imagine he will be able to handle it along with adding an extra class but we will see!
Awesome! My son is also taking orgo and found out that he scored almost one standard deviation above the average on the first exam, making him fall within the top 25%. (His school is on the quarter system, so they have several more weeks left in the term.)
He was happy about that, but when he got his exam back he discovered that he had misread one of the questions. The points he lost on that one accounted for almost all of the points he missed overall. He actually knew how to do this problem but read it wrong.
So he could have done very very well on the exam. Oh well - hopefully this bodes well for the next two exams. He gets the material and hopefully will read the questions more closely!
Awesome, congrats! His chem 2 prof would show the class breakdown, orgo gives nothing other than TA he knows sharing class average.
The same thing happened to mine on exam 1, read something wrong and all points lost on one problem for the most part. The second exam was his weakest. He’s been above class average both times, but only by 3-5 points. This one was super unexpected, lots upset they are out of A contention after it.
I took astronomy for my science credit in college so this is all very foreign to me. There are 2 orgo profs, mine shopped both and landed with the more popular one. I guess they can show up or watch lectures for each. Apparently they both make a test and then decide which to use. It usually ends up being the prof he is in, has been all semester. He took last years leading up and got a perfect score. Unfortunately it was accidentally leaked and immediately caught so they used other exam just in case. He said the wording was a bit different or something like that. Perhaps that’s why the class average was so low if they’ve all gotten used to how the other writes exams. Not sure!
S24 didn’t get the TA spot. Haven’t spoken live. I’m sure he’s bummed, but reminded him he got 2 leadership positions and EMT this year. You’re not going to win them all, this year was a success!
The magic ingredient in our case was a college that seemed exactly like the “stuffy, tiny and BORING OMG” (her words) high school her brothers attended.
