30 Something

I got a call from a confused student. She was telling me that she got a letter stating that she not going to be able to graduate. I quickly checked her files. I went over the requirements and it looked like a mistake. So, I reassured her that I would check it out and do what I can to fix it. After I hung up I quickly noticed my error. When I talked to her about her classes I listed the final classes that she needed to take to graduate. Well, when she met me at a later date I failed to pay attention to one's she selected. I assumed that she took heed to what I'd said. She didn't. The letter was correct--she won't graduate this semester. Aaaaagggghhhhh!!!!!!. I f*****ed up this time. I relunctantly called her back. I was going to go to the lounge to call her back because I wanted to hide my mistake from everyone. If this leaks I will be stoned, students and staff are brutal here. They are quick to judge--myself included. But the lounge was occupied so I called from my office. She cried on the phone. I think because of the relationship that we formed she was holding back her anger at me. I really do feel that if we hadn't know each other so well, she would have cursed me out and told me that I didn't do my job, which is true. My job is to make sure that my students graduate. I didn't do my job. Plus this wasn't the first time I didn't pay attention to a student's schedule. This same exact incident occurred earlier in the semester. But, luckily the student followed my advise and applied to graduate early and the mistake was caught, but this student didn't have the money to graduate so she had to do it at the last minute, so she was really relying on me to make sure that she had all of the requirements. I feel devasted that I let her down. I feel devasted that I've been complaining about all the screwed up stuff (mind you the stuff is screwed up in my eyes) at work. Now I screwed up. I judged wrongly. Now I'm being judged. The Bible is true you will be judged by the same thing that you judge. Now, I'm hoping, not praying, that this stay between us. Like I said students and staff are brutal. A mistake was made by another counselor and the student wasn't very nice. A story was written in the school newspaper about her mistake. A financial aid director made the mistake of discouraging a student. The student sent a letter to the Dean asking all of the director's collegues to jugde if she is worthy of her job becuase she has no right to discourage a student. The letter was forwarded to all of the staff and students at work. Plus, in the past because my name has been connected to other student's records I've been blamed for those mistakes, to which I had no defense because even though I didn't make the mistake, my name was on it so it looked like I made the mistake. All in all, I 've learned a valuable lesson for the second time, don't judge because it doesn't feel good when it comes back around.

I should have known that this was coming though. Because I've been feeling pretty crappy at work lately. This is just the thing that will put me back in line. I'm more forgiving of people now. I am thankful that this happened because now I can get back to normal. Even though I predict that I will be paranoid for the rest of the summer.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 at 12:25 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.