I work at the Disabled Student Services at my college. My description is kind of complicated, but in a gist, I am a receptionist. I sit at the front desk, give the cart drivers their lunch breaks, answer the phone, make appointments, organize shelves, and take notes in classes. I interact with counselors, office managers, other student workers, the Dean of Student Affairs, and of course the body of students who are physically or mentally disabled.
I love it. I am scared of it. I feel totally legitimate when I have a Deaf student who can't remember her password, have two students filing out paperwork in the waiting room, talking with an out of state mother whose daughter has a learning disability, confirming appointments with counselors, shredding files with SSN and the whole while communicating with my bosses of what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel totally inadequate. I have been there for a over a year now and have my bearings down pretty well
Tuesday was one of those days when everything was going on at once. People running in and out of the office, I had my hands full. I was sitting at my spot when a student came to my desk and asked for a ride to his car. I am not allowed, nor do I want to go into great detail, but this particular student has made my job more difficult in the past and I was acting very patient with him, maybe a bit short. He kept giving me a different name than his own, and I had to double check my computer for his accommodation status: blah blah blah...
This student eventually got what he wanted, and yeah, it did take a few minutes longer than it should have, and was incredibly rude to me. Before he left, he said something along the lines of, "Everyone who works in this office has a disability, so I feel at home."
That night I stayed up late into the night thinking about this and how upset it made me. How upset it makes me. I bet he had practiced that line. I mean, he wasn't personally attacking me per say. It just annoys me when I am doing my job and other people can't get out of their own life to be kind, or to be considerate of others. I found out later that someone else in the office had been rude to him and he had complained about it and his interaction with me was a test. Great. I was being tested!
Wednesday: I am exhausted mid-day (I spend about 12 hours on campus every MW) and I get a text from Lauren. She says, "when do you get out of school tonight?" I told her.
"leave a little early"
"can't...have test next week, must review"
"ummm. you have to. Sean got us tickets to see Death Cab"
"omg omg omg omg!!!! :):):):) omg omg omg!!!"
Lauren and I went off and watched a spiritual performance by Death Cab for Cutie (opened by Coldwar Kids) at UCSD. It was long and wonderful. Live music does something for your soul. It connects you to everyone else in the room, on the stage, in your head; your body feels it and your spirit just moves. It was perfect! (and Lauren is the perfect person to go with- she sings and she gets killer seats...)
Tonight I heard/watched/got my book signed by Jimmy Santiago Baca. His work is powerful. He liked my poem that I wrote inspired when I was reading his memoir A Place to Stand.I am so moved by the poet, by the music. Maybe I should drop everything and just be a beatnik married to a musician. Nah, I want that PhD...I want that knowledge. It's going to be fucking hard. But it will be so worth it!
Bye, the by--
I have a horrible weekend ahead of me with four tests, museum, speech and four papers due this next week. Good night and good luck sweet society...
No comments:
Post a Comment