So today I wore a sweatshirt. Today is the warmest day we’ve had all year at almost 80 degrees. I wore a sweatshirt for two reasons: 1) I had an exam and the classroom where the exam was taking place is absolutely freezing 2) it was my #AKF sweatshirt to give me the confidence and courage to talk to two of my professors.
So three years ago, I had a really rough spring semester. In two months time my cat died, my parents divorced, and I got quite sick. Not admitted to the hospital sick, but waking up with a migraine nearly every day, entire body hurting, rapidly changing body temperature, loss of voice sick. Looking back, I should have gone to see my doctor. I had been doing okay until I got sick and then I lost all motivation to do anything. I only wanted to go to work and watch Netflix. I stopped doing my homework, I rarely went to class, and when I did go I wasn’t participating. I got what is known as a deficiency report (students get one of these when they’re not doing well in a class, stop attending a class, etc.) and immediately went to see my academic advisor. I told her what was going on and she listened and waited for me to stop and started getting a plan together. Luckily my school is small enough that everyone knows each other including staff and faculty. She called one of the therapists on campus (he may have been a psychiatrist, I don’t recall his degree now), gave him a quick rundown of my situation, and we walked across campus to his office. The three of us formulated a game plan and my went back to her office after making sure I would be okay. The two of us talked for a little while and then went to see my professors about my classes. We got everything worked out and eventually I was okay.
I will be forever grateful that I go to a small school because one of the professors that I had that awful semester three years ago taught one of my classes this semester. I found out in March that I can’t graduate this year and I thought I had made peace with it, but apparently I hadn’t. I got a nasty strain of the flu, conjunctivitis, and laryngitis all at once about a month ago and missed classes for several days because conjunctivitis is super contagious. After that, I just didn’t want anything to do with the remaining couple of weeks left in the semester. I did manage to get everything for one of my classes done, but not the other two. The professor that I had three years ago and this semester? I told him what was going on and that was why I didn’t have my paper done and he basically told me not to worry, just get it done when I can. My other professor told me that in the long run, it isn’t going to matter if it takes three more weeks of three more hours for me to get this stuff done. He also said to get it to him when I can and “it better be phenomenal, don’t hand in garbage.” I’ve had both professors before and they know I can do the work and I don’t want to disappoint them the last time I will ever have a class with them.
So thank you Jared Padalecki, for starting the Always Keep Fighting campaign. Thank you for designing a shirt that I would eventually buy and would wear to give me the confidence to talk to my professors and tell them that I’m really struggling right now and need a little bit more time before I’m okay.