Thursday, April 10, 2008

Yesterday's Letter

There were enough questions about yesterday's letter that I thought I'd answer them in a post.

When it came time to fulfill my math/sciences credits in college, I didn't want to take yet another chemistry/physics/bio/math class. I wanted to try something new, something I knew nothing about. So I decided to take computer programming to fulfill those requirements.

Since "Computer Sciences" wasn't my major, and I didn't know anybody in any of my computer classes, when the note was passed to me during class, I asked who I was supposed to pass it to. The person who'd handed it to me pointed at me. I shook my head and tried to mime "No. Who do you want me to pass it to? Where is it supposed to end up?" and again, she pointed to me. I knew that couldn't be right so I looked back through the rows of students to see who had originally sent the note. I was certain I'd find someone frantically waving and pointing to their best friend sitting NEXT to me, or maybe a row or two over, but every person in the "note passing chain" pointed to me. So I read the note. Then I slowly turned around again and caught the eye of the person who had sent it -the one smiling happily and waving at me from the back of the room.

I agreed to tutor her but we only met once or twice. What she really wanted was for me to write the programs for her without any explanation. She asked me to write out the answers to the homework assignments in full, and said that she'd look it all over once she was home and compare it to her notes from class. I told her we could discuss the homework assignments and her notes during our tutoring sessions. She said it would take too long. I told her it wouldn't. She told me she forgot her notes. I told her we could make new ones, and that mine would be easier for her to understand. She said she didn't have a pen or paper. I told her I did. She said she was late for an appointment.

Needless to say, things didn't work out.

I don't know if she killed herself or not, but I never heard from her parents so... ;)


 

7 Comments:

Hillary said...

Weeeiiirrrd!

Anonymous said...

Well she did say that her parents WON'T blame you... so...

Anonymous said...

This is one of those instances where you'd rather not know if she indeed killed herself. lol

storyteller said...

Wow … what a strange experience! I’m not surprised to learn that ‘it didn’t work out’ and hopefully she didn’t ‘kill herself’ over such a circumstance.
Hugs and blessings,

Melissa said...

Hillary: HILLARY COMMENTS!!! YAY!!!! ;) :D (Shouldn't you be sleeping? Or running around a wall or something? ;) )

ginger: Yeah... so, either way it all works out ;)

abbie and storyteller: I'm pretty sure she did just fine :)

Grandy said...

She SO thought you would be a pushover and do the homework for her. Good for you!

Melissa said...

Oh heck yeah. SO not gonna happen!

In High School, I didn't mind if once in a while someone tried to cheat off my test. I figured if it wasn't affecting my grade then I wasn't cheating. They were ;) But after High School, no way. Pretty much "no way" once I started taking any kind of classes where everyone was there by choice -as opposed to "meaningless classes that were forced upon us." (My viewpoint during most of my early schooling!)

But help someone study? Especially something I understood well? Absolutely. People I tutored always did well.