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Black Wednesday
Today wasn't a good day. Wednesdays and Thursdays hardly are, since I have to get up at an ungodly hour of 6am. But that's besides the point.
Our project team screwed up a class presentation. No way to put it gently. Had it been a business presentation course, we'd have flunked out of it. As it is, I think we did flunk the presentation. What's more important, however, is the next presentation on Friday, which due to a weird quirk of fate known as EL2111, I cannot attend.
So my rant today is not about our performance. It was bad, admittedly, but we learn and move on.
What we cannot move away from however, are certain types of people who have the need to totally stand out from the crowd as if they were tailored for the SMU marketing drive, which will have you think their students perpetually hop around rather than walk. These same people stand on the table for a simple self-introduction (this is not a play on words unfortunately), overdress at the grocers, gell their hair up with enough chemicals to deplete the ozone layer above the country. These same people are conscientious enough to turn up in full suits when everyone else is in long sleeves and assorted standard office wear, but cannot make it a point to arrive on time for presentations (the better for them to make a collective grand entrance). These same people stay in their own cliques, and will die before socializing with "lesser" mortals. Yep. These people.
I realize I must sound like a green-eyed loser who's been outclassed, but while I admit my wardrobe and personality is not as flamboyant, I do not think that being outclassed is all it is. This actually brings to mind the previous hot-topic of heartlanders vs cosmopolitans. It's more of a clash between cultures and personalities rather than performance alone. I am no stranger to being outclassed really. Not when I have friends who complete 3 degrees (with 1 in a foreign language) in 5 years, study some obscure branch of physics in Yale, or possess enough discipline to wake at the crack of dawn everyday to study, work or exercise (guess who?). I'm not stupid enough to not realize that there are many others stronger than me in certain areas. It's more of how I am being outclassed.
Pure talent? Fine.
Flashy suits, smarmy smiles, fake accents (absurd I swear... 1 year in the States is enough to wipe all traces of a local accent away... get real), blatant false advertising? Not fine.
I must do something about this. No point whining about it and not doing anything. No, I'm not going to kill or maim anyone, so no worries there (or is that a sigh of disappointment? I must admit that the thought of kicking the table from under the person who hops on it to introduce himself gives me perverse pleasure). What I'll do is to take this as a wake-up call to up my game. If I get this worked-up in school, then it'll be even tougher to tolerate them when I start work. And like Agent Smiths in the Matrix, they will be legion.
My bazookas will be primed.
Our project team screwed up a class presentation. No way to put it gently. Had it been a business presentation course, we'd have flunked out of it. As it is, I think we did flunk the presentation. What's more important, however, is the next presentation on Friday, which due to a weird quirk of fate known as EL2111, I cannot attend.
So my rant today is not about our performance. It was bad, admittedly, but we learn and move on.
What we cannot move away from however, are certain types of people who have the need to totally stand out from the crowd as if they were tailored for the SMU marketing drive, which will have you think their students perpetually hop around rather than walk. These same people stand on the table for a simple self-introduction (this is not a play on words unfortunately), overdress at the grocers, gell their hair up with enough chemicals to deplete the ozone layer above the country. These same people are conscientious enough to turn up in full suits when everyone else is in long sleeves and assorted standard office wear, but cannot make it a point to arrive on time for presentations (the better for them to make a collective grand entrance). These same people stay in their own cliques, and will die before socializing with "lesser" mortals. Yep. These people.
I realize I must sound like a green-eyed loser who's been outclassed, but while I admit my wardrobe and personality is not as flamboyant, I do not think that being outclassed is all it is. This actually brings to mind the previous hot-topic of heartlanders vs cosmopolitans. It's more of a clash between cultures and personalities rather than performance alone. I am no stranger to being outclassed really. Not when I have friends who complete 3 degrees (with 1 in a foreign language) in 5 years, study some obscure branch of physics in Yale, or possess enough discipline to wake at the crack of dawn everyday to study, work or exercise (guess who?). I'm not stupid enough to not realize that there are many others stronger than me in certain areas. It's more of how I am being outclassed.
Pure talent? Fine.
Flashy suits, smarmy smiles, fake accents (absurd I swear... 1 year in the States is enough to wipe all traces of a local accent away... get real), blatant false advertising? Not fine.
I must do something about this. No point whining about it and not doing anything. No, I'm not going to kill or maim anyone, so no worries there (or is that a sigh of disappointment? I must admit that the thought of kicking the table from under the person who hops on it to introduce himself gives me perverse pleasure). What I'll do is to take this as a wake-up call to up my game. If I get this worked-up in school, then it'll be even tougher to tolerate them when I start work. And like Agent Smiths in the Matrix, they will be legion.
My bazookas will be primed.
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