Things that I'm upset about right now

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In no particular order:

Out in Santa Fe, my allergies were fine for most of the year. They got a little bad starting this month - a bit of sneezing, a bit eye irritation. Solution: I took Allegra and was fine. Then I got home to nice, humid, smoggy NJ for the summer, ran out of Allegra, and apparently lost my ability to breathe. I can’t currently get my perscription refilled because I don’t have the actual perscription, there’s no doctor I can go see, and I don’t currently have health insurance.

I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with my life, because I don’t know if I’m going back to school next year. I go to one of the few schools in the country where you can be passing all your classes and still, they try to make you take a year off. I appealed the decision to the Dean, and he said I’d get a letter with his decision this week. I haven’t gotten it yet.

My father, apparently, lost his job yet again. I’m not sure exactly when, because my parents decided they weren’t going to tell me, because they didn’t want me to worry. Apparently, they figured that by not telling me until I came downstairs my second day home on break and saw my dad not at work, I wouldn’t worry about the fact that my father has an amazing inability to keep a job. The worst part is he’s had a hard time keeping a job, so he’ll take whatever comes up, but this last one he actually really liked, it was an easy commute, and paid well.

I need to drive my dog to the kennel tomorrow morning, alone, which I’m scared to do. She gets hyper in cars.

I need to go to my sister’s graduation from the Air Force Academy next week. I’m really proud of her, and excited because we’re going to take an awesome road trip home. I don’t, however, particularly get along with the political philosophy of the vast majority of people involved with the Academy. Dick Cheney will be speaking, and I’d rather gouge my eyes out than sit and listen to him amongst his rabid fans. It’s frustrating as hell to be immensely happy for my sister, but at the same time immensely at odds with the philosophy of her school.

I went to my college’s commencement last week. It was very nice but I got really sunburnt, so my shoulders and arms are peeling. Why the hell does that happen, anyway? I see no evolutionary advantage to having your healed skin peel off like bad wallpaper.

My next-door neighbor, in addition to be an annoying guy who I think is involved in drugs, was out mowing his lawn with a gas-powered mower today at 6 AM.

I’ve realized that, of my ‘friends’ from high school, there are exactly three of them who I truly like as friends. A few more I sort of enjoy hanging out with, in moderation. Most of my real friends are from college, and scattered around the country. Right now, the nearest one is in Indiana - most of my closest friends from school are from Texas or California. One of them is from New York, just a few hours away, but she’s spending the summer in western Canada. I miss them and I’m bored as hell here.

deep breath I feel a little better now

2

This thread is more well suited for MPSIMS. I’ll move it over.

3

On the bright side, while you’re in the Springs, you can visit Focus on the Family.

:d&r:

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Question:

  1. If not too personal what’s your GPA? If it’s not somewhat low I’d be pretty pissed about your school trying to make you take a year off if I was you.

Anyways, taking a year off is bad for almost everyone I’ve ever known to do it (in my experience it only seems to work after HS, not in the middle of one’s college career.)

  1. You can probably get a prescription for allegra from a Student Health doctor, that’s pretty standard in my experience and student health usually is at a very discounted rate.
5

offers tea and hugs and chocolate, in response to the general suckiness of life

6

It’s not a GPA issue at all. The basic summary is: it’s a very odd school where all of the classes are small (~15 students) discussions. Participation is really important, and I’m a very, very shy person IRL, so I don’t talk much if at all. This is a Big Problem, thus, “take some time off”.

Unfortunately, my school is in New Mexico and I’m in New Jersey. Should’ve gotten it refilled before I left school… :smack:

7

I believe my former SO went to your school, so I know that they do things a bit differently there. I’m sorry to hear that they’re thinking about giving you a year off. Would it be better if you transferred to Baltimore? I know it’s the same stuff there as in Santa Fe, but maybe you could convince them fresh environment and all. Although, really, with all your friends in SF Maryland would be no fun.

Worst part is you can’t even use the year off to go to school elsewhere, since they don’t take transfer credits. But maybe you could use it to become educated in some areas that they don’t do as well – do some hands on art and theater, or take some science or math without reading primary texts.

I know you’ve thought through all this before; let me just say that I’m sorry that you have to go through this now. I hope that it turns out better than you could expect.

8

Worse case scenario: They say “take a break”. You’ll be stuck in Jersey without job prospects, feeling like a schlub for not being in school, scared about the future.

Sounds bad, but maybe you can turn it into an “experience”. Become a working stiff. Volunteer somewhere. Take really really long walks. Indulge in reading and writing. Teach yourself something. Take a cheap class at a community college. Help out at home. Make it an experience that you’ll be able to talk about proudly when you’re a famous writer.

If shyness is your problem (it’s mine too), maybe you can use the year to break out of it. Make becoming more comfortable around people an achievable goal.

If they’re going to make you sit out a year just because you don’t talk much in class, then maybe this school isn’t right for you.

9

Have you tried Claritin? It is available over the counter now, and all the drug stores have store brands of it too (Loratadine is the generic name, I think). So, you get 10 or so for $4-5, which isn’t too bad since they’re 24 hour pills.

Sorry about having to listen to Cheney. I would feel exactly the same way as you in those circumstances. Just be gracious and try to keep politics out of the celebrations.

10

Ooh, Ninja, that’s awful! At the end of my sophomore fall semester my don rag was 3-2 against me, but at least they didn’t leave me hanging after I’d left campus! They had a hearing, and Aigla (I told you he was a good guy!) was very instrumental in changing the vote.

Then I got disenabled anyway. Oh, and there was that jazz with the algebra test. Do they still make you take that?

You know, I don’t really know you, so I’m loath to say this without any details about you or your SJC experience, but are you really sure this is the right school for you? When I got dis’ed, it was a moot point, because I’d already decided that I really didn’t belong there. I transferred to a school in Pittsburgh, and I was 110% better off. Have you thought about Montclair?

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Oh, and Campion, I don’t know if it works that way. If she gets dismissed from the Santa Fe campus, that might not mean that she’d be welcome in Anapolis; it’s the same program. I could be wrong, though.

Also, another question. Is it really a matter of you not talking enough, Ninja? I seem to remember that quality of comments counted just as much as quantity. There was one guy in my year who got himself on thin ice because he never. stopped. yammering. and took forever to get to the point if he had one. And the sad truth in my case was that I made a fair number of comments, but I just wasn’t on the same track as everyone else. Like I said, the program might not be right for you. Try not to think of it as you not being right for the program.

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Heh, you must go to St. John’s. I always liked St. John’s as they were quite successful versus Navy in their rivalry. And an enemy of Navy’s is a friend of mine.

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It is St. John’s, Martin. And yes, the Annapolis campus does often whip the Navy in croquet.

Rilchiam: Yep, they do still make us take the algebra test - take it at least once freshman year, pass by the end of sophomore year. A minor issue in my don rag was I haven’t done great in math, but I am passing. I’m immensely quiet in class. It’s not exactly ‘just shyness’, it’s an issue of full-fledged social anxiety. I’m already getting help for it (after avoiding the issue entirely for years), and, if worse comes to worse, I’ll have a year to work on it rather than three months. I really do want to be at St. John’s, but if going back becomes an issue, I’m considering a few other places I’d originally applied.

Hello AgainI’ve tried Claritin before. It basically turned me into a narcoleptic - I could not stay awake. :frowning:

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Heh, you must go to St. John’s. I always liked St. John’s as they were quite successful versus Navy in their rivalry. And an enemy of Navy’s is a friend of mine.

15

Mysterious double post :slight_smile:

16

You should take some with you for Cheney’s speech. :slight_smile:

17

So long as she can learn to keep her eyes open while sleeping. I became quite good at that in High School and it seems to be a basic experience for anybody who’s been to catholic schools (at least in Latin countries).

18

I don’t really know much about taking a year off, but if you have to, maybe think about travelling. Join up with a volunteer program and they will take care of lodging, feeding, and keeping you alive. My exgirlfriend came over here to China to teach english. No chinese required, no education experience, just willing to jump out into the world and see what there is. It hopefully would help you with your shyness, doing something that you haven’t tried (like it’s been suggested already).

19

Have you tried just Claritin, or have you tried the new time-released Claritin-D? Claritin-D has a time-released dose of pseudoephedrine in it. That oughta help you stay awake. However, if that’s the one you tried and it made you narcoleptic, all I can say is “man, that sucks” and offer sympathy.