The Art of Being Understanding

The other day, I got a real test when it came to holding my tongue and trying to remember that everyone makes mistakes. A student at our school with a mental disability that I won't go in to was trying to find a professor that would be accomidating to her needs. When she approached my professor, he said that he would be more than happy to have her since he already had another student just like her in the class. I figured out this was me because he said that this student had a dog. I realize that blindness is a disability. However, I would hardly call that a mental impairment. Therefore, I'm sure you can imagine how I felt about this statement. My first instinct was to approach the professor and explain to him exactly what I thought about this. However, I realized that it would just start a big dispute. Seeing as he is great when it comes to instruction and I'm planning on taking more classes with him, I figured it might be a good idea to not go about it in this way. I decided that it could have been an honest mistake and it would probably not happen again. There are 2 things to be learned from this. The first is to stop and think before immediately getting deffensive with a person. The second would be to not let this kind of treatment continue. For example, if this professor were to continue making such comments about me or any other students, he would definitely be taught that he should conduct himself in a more professional manner. Therefore, it helps to step back and examine a situation before reacting to it, and working out a plan before acting will allways be the better route.

The Joys of Fire Drills

Tonight, Mason and I experiensed a fire drill in the dorms. In these situations, I don't like to put him in harness because I don't want the harness to be ascoiated with stress, which he is under when this happens. However, no harness means no working for the dog. Unfortunately, people are not allways willing to help. So, the main thing to remember is to not get disoriented. You do this by keeping your exact movements in your mind as much as possible so you can use them to backtrack afterwards. Also, you want to remember to not get frustrated with your dog since he or she may be anxious about all the excitement and noise. As long as you keep all this mind, fire drills will still be annoying, but they will be manageable.

Back to School

So, a new semester begins this week. Actually, it was supposed to begin last week, but we had snow days from Monday untill Thursday. I have no classes on Fridays, so Mason and I got an extra week of winter break. Actually, I was pretty surprised since it's rare for Georgia to get 1 snow day let alone a whole week of them. Anyway, I'm doing things a little differently this semester. I'm normally one of those over achievers that tries to take as many credit hours as I can. After all, the more I get done, the sooner I can graduate. However, last semester was a rough one. I put all my energy in to one class, and neglected the other 4. In the end, I passed the 4 I neglected, although I could have done a lot better. As for the one I put the efort in too, I got a d. Technically, that's passing. However, since it's a class for my major, a d means no credit, which means I have to retake it. This along with the ones that were also lower than normal caused my grade point average to drop. So, I decided to only take 4 classes this semester, the minimum you can take as a full time student. With less to do, I'm hoping I can raise my grade point average and keep my scholarship. Also, I can enjoy the college experiense a little more. Like I said, I originally thought that it was good to rush things, but I decided that I'd rather have the better grades and the fun memories than a quick deploma. Besides, a higher GPA will be a necesity when I apply for graduate school. So, wish me luck. I'm definitely going to need it. lol