I’m not sure if I’m staying angry so that I can write this,
or if I’m really still furious. I was definitely furious half an hour ago
though, of that I am certain.
I teach a section of a class at Campbell called the Campbell
University Freshman Seminar (CUFS). It’s basically just a required class for
freshmen about how to succeed in college. To be a teacher of this class, I attend
meetings every other week with all the other student teachers and we learn
teaching strategies and styles etc. Tonight was one of those meetings.
Tonight’s meeting was about Stress Management, and Goal
Setting. Stress Management was really fun: we did breathing exercises, listened
to music, and colored. Then came Goal Setting, which involved The Stoplight "Game."
We were each given fifteen sticky notes (five green, five
red, five yellow). On the
red, we were to write things we want to stop doing next semester; on the green, things we want to start
doing; on the yellow, things we want to keep doing.
At first it was hard to come up with things, but once
the juices got flowing, I really enjoyed the activity. Visualizing my
goals made me feel more productive and capable.
Then we lay all the sticky notes in
front of us.
“All right,” Carrie, the leader, said. “Now, take away
five of them. If you had to give up five goals for next semester, which ones
would you discard?”
Ugh, that sucked after working so hard to pick really important things. I was annoyed.
“All right,” Carrie said. “Look at these ten things. These
are the ten things you most want to be sure to do next semester.” We all nodded.
“Okay, now take away five more.”
Now it just wasn’t cool. I stared at my goals, things like “Make
Time for Creative Writing,” “Read my Bible Every Day,” and “Work Out More
Consistently” and felt genuinely persecuted as I had to strip five more away.
Who was this bitch to tell me that I could only accomplish five damn things
next semester?
I still had seven when she beamed at the group again. “All
right, now that you have five in front of you—” (“I still have seven,” I muttered
to my small group as I finally stripped away "Stop Putting Off Getting Started" and "Start Writing Letters Again") “—I want you to take away two more.”
I glared at her. Wow. Now I had to take away “Blogging” and “Getting the
Hard Stuff Done First” (an awesome strategy I’ve somehow just recently bought
into).
“Now,” she said. “You guessed it. What if you could only
have one goal in front of you? Discard two more. What is the most important
thing to you?”
“Wow,” I muttered to my small group. “Obviously ‘Send Out My
Resume and Get a Real Job” is the one thing that has to stay. I have to get a job.”
I stared at that little green sticky note which—just minutes
ago—had held promise and productivity and passion, and I hated it. I hated its dirty fucking soul.
I had watched my colorful and well-rounded array of life
goals boil down to “Hey Bitch. Get your ‘real’ life together.” I had watched
goals like “Start Writing Letters Again,” “Eat Healthier,” and “Hang Out With
My Roommates” get stripped away because they weren’t “as important” as
practical or obligatory shit like “Read My Bible Every Day” (sorry, Jesus, I love
doing that. I honestly do. Which is why it was fucking stupid to make me
discard it) and “Send Out My Resume.”
It’s just not fair. Seriously, who is this bitch who thinks I
can only accomplish one damn thing?!
We then had to continue this activity by sharing with the
group and making a timeline for achievement, complete with intermediate goals.
As people shared, they had fun insights like “My number one ended up being ‘Get
Organized,’ and it’s funny because I realized that if I just get organized, I’ll
actually achieve my number two and three goals, which were ‘Study More’ and ‘Sleep
More.’”
“Great!” Carrie would say. “That’s great! That’s exactly
right. Isn’t it cool how you figure out that by achieving your ultimate goal, a
lot of the little things fall into place!”
Except that I actually arranged my goals so that they didn’t
overlap like that. ALL of my goals
were individually important.
“This might be a fun activity to do with your classes,”
Carrie said. “We’re happy to provide sticky notes if you want to come by the
office and grab some!”
I will set my
classroom on fire before I subject my beloved freshmen to this, I thought.
See, I understand the purpose of the activity. It was
to help us prioritize, and that part WAS really interesting. (So
interesting that I’m actually going to end this post with my goals in order.)
It just also depressed me completely.
Why would you make me come up with things I want
to do with my life, then direct me to discard everything that adds color and
joy and personality, because—sorry—they can’t realistically make the cut
because I’d rather “Start Working Out” than “Start Writing Letters Again.”
First of all, that makes me feel like a really shitty person when you make me
visually depict the fact that I guess I care more about how I look than keeping
in touch with people? Except that I don’t think I’m a shitty person (at least not because of that). I think I can
do both of those things perfectly well. Back the fuck off and let me keep my
goals.
I know I sound like I’m getting way, way, irrationally angry
about this. And maybe I am. Maybe I’m just PMSing. But I just think it’s really
painful and unhelpful to make a college senior reduce her life to “Get a Job,
Bitch.” But maybe that’s just me.
We shoulda done the Stress Management Workshop last.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15. Clearing Out My Email Inbox Regularly
14. Meeting Up with My CUFS Kids/Keeping in Touch with Them
13. Wasting So Much Time on Facebook
12. Letting My Room Get So Messy
11. Assuming People Don’t Remember Me
10. Hanging Out with My Roommates
9. Eating So Much Junk Food
8. Making Time for Creative Writing
7. Writing Letters Again
6. Stopping Putting off Getting Started
5. Doing the “Hard” Stuff First
4. Blogging
3. Reading My Bible Every Day
2. Working Out More Consistently
1. Sending Out Job Applications/Resume
~Stephanie
No comments:
Post a Comment