Friday, February 5, 2010

Day 34

I made an enemy today. She probably wasn't even aware that I had made her into an enemy. Her name is Donna and she works for Washington State University. She doesn't have a face or a voice. Our contacts are limited to email. She started it.

I received an email from her last week with a TO DO list attached. I was advised that I had to complete the items on the list in order to graduate (this in addition to 2 years of course work, preliminary exams and 2 years of research). This started a volley of email back and forth; me seeking clarification, her telling me about all of the rules that stand between me and my degree. At some point I started to feel that I was in some kind of battle to the finish. This bitch was standing between me and my degree. The fight was on.

I called Nick in order to enlist him, hoping he would join up on my side. Nick is also an employee of the college. In addition to having a name and an email address, he also has a face and voice. As I explained my frustration he laughed and told me he deals with these kinds of problems all the time. It seems that Nick knows Donna and was unwilling to join me in my little war against her. In fact, he said, "Donna's a really nice person."

Whoa! Donna is a person. Suddenly I knew that she wasn't out to get me. She was just a person trying to do her job. To her I am probably just a name on a form. I suppose that's part of the problem. When people get reduced to names and numbers, it's easy to forget their humanity. Maybe someday soon I'll stop in and see Donna and call it a truce. Maybe after I graduate...

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