THE RIGHT ANGLE: Goodbye UNCG - Opinions
THE RIGHT ANGLE: Goodbye UNCG - OpinionsNo, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet. But my exam "week" has literally been more like an exam month. I knew signing up for 18 upper-level Political Science classes was a mistake, but you do what you gotta do to graduate. I'm amazed it didn't go to hell before now.
Currently, I have an exam and a paper due TOMORROW. A Saturday. It's enough to make me want to convert to Judaism, so I could complain. But I really can't, I just want a break more than anyone can even understand.
So I guess the basic purpose of this post was to link to my last Carolinian column. I've been meaning to go back through and post all of my old columns in their respective weeks, now that the online Carolinian site has that handy Blogger button. But I was just stopped by a student in the library (my new home) who asked me if I was sad to be leaving. And while my normal reaction is a quick and sincere "yes", I hesitated. Probably because right before he asked me this question, the student commented on the fact that I was the most hated person on campus.
Well, I can tell you one thing: I WON'T miss being the most hated person on campus.
I won't miss wondering if every person who glares at me is just generally sullen, or wants to punch me in the face.
I won't miss people recognizing me outside of school IN PUBLIC and trying to start a fight.
I won't miss all the random IMs I get from people, sending me a link to see what someone has been saying about me on their blog, or on facebook. And you know, it's one thing when I either don't know the person, or it's someone who has a reason to hate me. But I was recently informed of this little posting on a facebook group's message board:
Believe me ... Melissa and Daryn are difficult people to deal with and still be civil (Melissa and I are both in Women and the Law together).
Now, I've had much worse things said about me, but I just can't fathom why this kid would have anything bad to say about me. I've been nothing but nice to him in class as far as I can remember, and I'm generally too tired to start a fight that early in the morning. I think what gets me is he could have just gotten the whole "they're both difficult" point across without trying to reassure everyone that he has it on good authority because he takes a class with me.
Oh, that's brings me to another thing I won't miss: College Democrat emails. Yes, it is a given that the two groups will talk about each other behind their backs, but to send it out in an email? Do you really think, out of all the people on the email list, that I won't know at least a handful of people who are willing to keep me updated on what they say?
I definitely will not miss the pettiness that is college students.
I won't miss killing myself just to get by. I got off easy only having to hold down 3 jobs this year. Last year, I had 5 at one point, and one of them didn't even pay. I won't miss the fact that no one understands my situation because their parents are helping them out (if not paying it all), or they were able to get enough grants, or they have loans that won't need to be paid off until after graduations. I was not awarded that luxury, so I am SO looking forward to not having to work constantly.
When I'm running off 2-3 hours of sleep (and I felt lucky to get that), it's not hard to think of the bad things about UNCG. But then I start thinking -- really thinking -- about leaving this place for good, and I'm not sure it's really sunk in yet. As much as I hate to admit it, I love UNCG. I love my friends, I love my professors, I love the sense of family I get from this place. I'll even miss class (but only the PSC ones). Yes, I've had some horrible times here, but the good has always outweighed the bad. And there is no doubt in my mind that the experiences and opporunities I've had here have made me a better person, and I couldn't have gotten them anywhere else.
I have no regrets.
posted by Melissa @ 3:57 PM
6 Comments:
If it makes you feel any better being loathed publicly isn't a partisan thing.
Over the course of my time as a columnist at UNCG I had the following glory days:
1) Having a Republican kid on my hall write "FAGGOT" and "SODOMITE" on my dorm room door my freshman year.
2) Having my car windows broken by fraternity guys who didn't like what I'd written about their group my sophomore year.
3) Being called an "apologist NPR liberal" by a Democrat.
4) Getting three personal, hand-written notes from Patty Sullivan about columns with which she disagreed.
5) Going to the wall (and very nearly to court) with the University to win the right to have the editorial content of the paper free of administration influence only to, a week later, be told by an ISO member that I was an administration stooge.
6) Being one of the few people who wanted to see Jason Crawford have a regular column in the opinion section and then being publicly accused, by him, of stifling conservative voices and being a tool of the administration.
7) The very next day being told by a College Democrat that I was furthering the Republican agenda by allowing a guest columnist to suggest that homosexuals are responsible for the AIDS epidemic and that the disease is God's punishment for our nation putting up with homosexuality.
8) Having a conservative friend of mine bust my balls because The Carolinian didn't publish the Mohammed cartoons that caused so much controversy and then, not even a month later, having campus conservatives tell us we shouldn't have allowed Brittain Peck's Iraq cartoons to run.
9) Having a lab partner of my girlfriend try to get into an argument with her, in the middle of a lab, about why I don't like Ann Coulter.
10) Getting called - more than once - at home after 1 a.m. on a weeknight about a column someone has just read and absolutely has to yell at me about.
The lesson: Some people are simply morons and there are wingnuts on each side and all along the middle. Hang your balls out there and someone's going to take a shot. Sometimes many people at once. Do it long enough it ceases to really bother you.
As someone who has received death threats for what I've written and who has heckled Joe Killian for what he's written I can say that there is nothing as important as stepping into the fray--and nothing that will get more people on your back. After four years of this, I would think that you would be used to it. I was genuinely surprised by the harried tone of your last column: you sounded pushed to the edge. Do you really think you are "the most hated person" in the UNCG community? Isn't that vaguely narcissistic? I found you very pleasant, actually, when we met and yet I don't think our politics align at all. Most people, I find, are as delightfully self-centered as everyone else; which means I don't have to worry about what they're thinking about me. Or you.
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