I had a student break down in my office today. I’m not sure what to do. I gave this person the best advice I could give, but I’m not their advisor, and frankly, I’m not sure that I can advise them adequately due to not having the knowledge base. If drive and hard work were enough this person would be the honor man in the class. Unhappily, it’s not.
I will support this individual no matter what, and hope for the best. But this makes me feel bad.
When I was little and first enamored with airplanes I wanted to be a fighter pilot. In the worst way. I was a girl, the first drawback, they weren’t flying high performance jets yet. And I wore glasses. Another drawback. Neither thing I could change. So my dream had to change. And I flew big ugly tankers and had an absolute BALL working for the Forest Service. It put me through grad school, into another career, yet another dream that would not have been realized had I been a fighter pilot.
Dreams of distant shores and friends I’d not have ever met.
Sometimes, the tears simply clear our eyes so we can see.
Comment by brigid — Monday, 10, November, 2008 @ 22:15 |
My medic instructor knows I was thinking of quitting in August with four months to go. I didn’t. Now we’ve only got 5 weeks to go. I’m finally reaching out to him to tell him where I’m struggling. You sound like an awesome professor
Comment by Lindsey — Wednesday, 12, November, 2008 @ 19:25 |