Alone and Unobserved

I need an A this semester or I have a very real chance of a) losing my scholarship, b) having to repay said scholarship, to the tune of several thousand dollars, and c) getting kicked out of my low-rent library science program. Getting an A is not looking likely, and I am steeling myself for the worst.

But today I logged into the course website (aka WebCT, aka Blackboard, aka The Java Juggernaut of Death, aka That #%$&ing Piece of *#@$!) and discovered that the web design project, which I was supposed to have started sometime in October, but which I actually started a week and a half ago and submitted on Monday, had been graded. 100 out of 100. Giving me 40% of my grade. Or at least an F. It’s a start!

What with the constant background stress of procrastinated homework, the two feverish weeks of cramming, paper-writing and assignment-finishing, and the week where my landlord misplaced my rent check and I thought I was going to be turned out into the snowy streets to starve, I have been extremely, constantly, chronically stressed for at least the past two months. In fact, I didn’t realize how much that terrible class was weighing on me until suddenly it was over: the last assignment was turned in, the last stupid, endless exercise in mind-reading (i.e., multiple-choice quiz) was done, the last lame, kiss-ass comment was left in the course’s online forum. I might have a failing grade in the course, but it was DONE.

The next day at work, I was a changed man. I was patient and polite with patrons, even the trying ones. I listened to their inane blather difficulties, smiled at them, and told them to have a nice day.

It’s great to have my librarian mojo back. I wonder how long it’ll last.