However, I need to vent a little bit about the dynamics within the classroom. I was told by a couple other women I know who graduated from this program that things are awkward, at first, between the Advanced Standing students and the students that had to go through the first year of the program. They all said it just had something to do with them already knowing one another and the Advanced Standing students having a newbie complex, so it all takes some getting used to on everybody's part. Well, "awkward" is the understatement of the century, because there is some major fuckery going down in my classes. After 2 weeks of class, here are my observations:
- It bugs me none of them graduated from college with a degree in Social Work and now they can get their MSW without any prior knowledge or degree in the profession at all. When I was an undergrad, I had to sit through all those classes that I felt would never impact me or my future career because they were all just requirements for the University to keep its accreditation. Now that I'm in the workforce, I actually practice what was preached to me all those years and it totally paid off. I'm trying to use it all as I go into my Master's program and I'm thinking it's already helping me a little bit. All these people who graduated with psychology and sociology degrees just don't know what it's like. They're not Social Workers, they just have jobs that they consider close enough to have decided they want a Social Work degree. I know I sound like a brat, and I'm sure I'll struggle just like the rest of them, but I just don't see how an entire undergraduate program is somehow equivalent to the one year's worth of Social Work classes these people went through last year. How is that the same thing at all?
- You can cut the tension with a knife. They don't like us and we don't like them. Some are tolerable and friendly enough, but others are annoying, opinionated, and argumentative, and it's crystal clear they aren't exactly welcoming us into their little group. Not that any of us care, because our little group of 5 is perfectly happy remaining a little group of 5. We didn't enroll because we wanted to make friends with the people we'll never interact with after graduation. But it still makes for uncomfortable classes because everything we say gets picked apart and over-analyzed by some argumentative bitch on the other side of the room. As a result, we end up keeping our mouths shut as they all voice their opinions on various topics they don't know much about.
- Isn't it funny how, when you don't know people very well, you just associate them with the few things you do know and that first impression just sticks to them forever? A lot of it is based on appearances but some of them are based off the bits and pieces of their personality that has come through in the measly 6 hours I've known of their existence. Here are some examples:
- Girl in front of me was a political science major in school, so I consider this a radical career-change for her. That, and she has curly hair that SHE BRUSHES. Rule #1 of having curly hair: don't brush that shit.
- Two women have Autistic kids. These women have bonded because of that fact alone. One of these women really really really likes to talk about having an Autistic kid.
- One will always be known as Girl with Pink Hair, because dammit, she has pink hair.
- Another is Leader of the Masters Program and wants everyone to know that she is the go-to-girl for any and all questions or concerns throughout our time in grad school. She wrote her personal cell number on the board during orientation. We haven't figured out if she was somehow appointed as the Leader by the professors, or if she's just the type to elect herself for things like that. It would probably be really useful if she wasn't just as scared and clueless as the rest of us. I have also learned that she commutes from Pennsylvania, and last class she started crying because she thinks Social Workers discriminate against Christians.
- The one guy in our class always walks into the classroom 45 minutes late.
- Another student identified herself as a Steeler's fan so that's how I'll identify her forever.
- One girl was at the very first class and I haven't seen her since, but she will forever be remembered as "Girl Whose Ponytail is Falling Out"
- One of the older women works with addicts and she is a former addict... so, basically, if you say anything about an addict or an addiction in general, she jumps all over you for being wrong. Because apparently, no one in the world knows addiction like she does. She jumped on me the very first class. We are off to a good start. For the longest time I tried to pinpoint what it was about her face that was so unusual, and then I realized she had a mouth just like Wallace from Wallace and Gromit.
Say what you want, but it's impossible not to associate people with that superficial bullshit until you really get to know them. And these people don't want to really get to know us, so I guess the little bits of their personality I pick up on will be how I think of them until I graduate. I'm not trying to be mean, but if you sit in a room full of people you don't know, you have to pick up on something to decipher one from the other. If it's not physical appearance, it's something they said or revealed about themselves. I'm probably known as "Girl Who Wears Scrubs to Class." In general, it's just not a friendly environment. You can tell they have chips on their shoulders because they were there last year and we weren't, but we have chips on our shoulders because we are Social Workers who know two shits about the profession and they don't.
The classes themselves are very different, also. My class on Tuesdays is much, much, much more interesting than my class on Wednesdays. Tuesday night is Psychopathology (aka: abnormal psychology) and I learn all about the different mental disorders, mental health treatments, and the theories behind how and why some people have mental health problems. It's interesting and relevant to my future, considering I'll be doing psych assessments on patients with my degree. Time flies by during class and I get to listen to actual facts that I can take notes on and study. Not a lot of discrepancy to be had when you're listening to facts (though the girl who brushes her curly hair did question the definition of the word "stigma." Definitions aren't up for interpretation, chickadee, they're definitions).
My Wednesday class is equivalent to sucking your own brain out with a crazy straw. It is everything I hate about class rolled into three long, torturous hours. Rather than giving me concrete information I can take home and study, this class is 'all about the discussion!' I think there is a time and place for "discussion," and sometimes that discussion can be very beneficial and enlightening. Other times, I sit there questioning whether the professor even had a lesson plan at all. Unless our tests are about the difficulties the girl across from me has faced leaving her small, country town where she had never seen a black person, I'm not down with 'discussion.' This class is Human Behavior in the Social Environment, which is a continuation of the exact same class I took in undergrad. I don't remember it being this stupid. So far all we have managed to talk about is race and discrimination, and we have filled countless minutes listening to the Chatty Cathies in our class talk about times in their lives when they felt discriminated against (that's when the Evangelical Christian started crying and the mother of the Autistic kid talked some more about being the mother of an Autistic kid). I learned about White Privilege, and discovered that you are not only racist for taking advantage of White Privilege, you are also racist if you deny the existence of White Privilege, because that just means you take it for granted. And while I like the professor as a human being in general, his teaching style blows. He is so up in the air he couldn't even describe our assignment in a way my friends and I could understand. It was something like, "Well, I wrote down that assignment was due on September 14th, but do you really want it due then? We can always change it. I wrote down the requirements for the paper but you can always change them around if you want, and there's no length requirement. Is September 14th too early? We can delay it a week if you want. How does everyone feel about this assignment?" JUST TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO AND WHEN IT NEEDS TO BE DONE. That shit drives my friends and I CRAZY (but the rest of the class is fine with it because, "oh, they had him last year"). I'm telling you: it's ugly in there. Institutes of higher learning can be a dangerous place late at night. I'm not even being cynical - all the girls I am familiar with and do the majority of my associating with just look at each other during class with expressions that read, "what the Hell was that about?"
It bums me out I've had to turn down all baking offers from coworkers (how's that for a complete lack of segue?). The Katy Shop is shut down for an indefinite period of time. I had to cancel the bridal shower cookies I would have made for tomorrow (had I been going home, which I can't do because I have relinquished all personal freedoms), I had to cancel the monster-truck themed birthday cookies for my coworker's son, I'm unable to bake cupcakes for our coworker's birthday, and I had to tell the Director of Nursing that I am unable to bake cupcake favors for some nursing appreciation thing she's doing in two weeks. It's so depressing! Baking is something I enjoy doing and I literally can't until Christmas break (when I will undoubtedly make so many Christmas cookies I'll likely be glad I can't bake again until next year's Christmas).
Yesterday, Nick and I went out to dinner. You never appreciate little things that are normal to so many other couples until you don't do those things ever. I know I live with him but it was good to spend time with him outside the confines of our apartment, talking about work and doting on the cats (speaking of the cats, I bought them a new cat tower yesterday after work and seeing how excited they got made my life). I'm celebrating Labor Day by not laboring at all on Monday, so the long weekend is allowing me to space out my reading for school so I have some more time to relax. Today I split my time reading and watching Just Go With It (which is cute but predictable), and tomorrow I am devoting to laundry and more reading. Hopefully all school stuff is done by Monday so I can truly veg out. My friend who is still in school asked me to accompany her to the store because she needs a new wardrobe for student teaching (and she is bad at that sort of thing, so she says) so maybe that'll be part of my Monday. Who knows! All I do know is that this blog is way too long.
I hate the steelers girl.
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