I was going to tell you about the exhausting client I had today who could not grasp the connection between Waikiki, Honolulu, and Oahu. No matter how often I repeated "It's Waikiki Beach in Honolulu on the island of Oahu" she kept mixing them up and getting mad because she thought I was trying to pull a fast one with this business of an island called Oahu. I became exasperated by her adamant refusal to believe that she could not drive from island to island. I finally lost all patience after she asked me a fifth time where Honolulu was. I suggested with a thin veneer of politeness that she go home and study a map. What a colossal waste of time.
But I'm too depressed to talk about it now. Our Oceanography class watched a video about the Titanic tonight, featuring a survivor talking in horrible detail about the screaming of the drowning passengers. I guess this video was part of our study of the general history of ocean exploration, but I think the only people who don't know why the Titanic disaster was important in maritime history are from another planet. I could have done without the nightmare material. There's a reason I haven't watched a sinking ship movie since The Poseidon Adventure, thank you very much.
Another Algebra alumna was at class and sat next to me tonight. I think he must have sat in the back last week. We compared notes on college plans during the break. I told him I feel like I'm really in college now, that Algebra class was more like having to do summer school.
I'm totally inspired by this Oceanography course. I might be the only one. Everyone else in the class seems reluctant to speak up so I find myself answering a lot of the professor's non-rhetorical questions. I think the answers are pretty obvious most of the time but then I read a lot of history. Of course, I'm weak in some areas. I scored big points for identifying an obscure Winslow Homer painting, then lost them all when I guessed wrong about who reached the North Pole first. Oops. I think I'll just shut up from now on, anyway. I don't want a reputation as that annoying woman up front who always has an answer.
Only, well, it's exciting to realize I have the answers, or at least a good educated guess. It's fun to make connections with information. I don't understand it, but I've turned into the person I was once convinced I could never be. I'm not just dutifully writing information down hoping it makes sense later. It makes sense now, because it illuminates something I already know or it completes a chain of thought I couldn't quite complete on my own. I just love filling in the gaps and seeing the new shape of knowledge.
I'm so happy to be using my brain again. I sure wish my client had used hers.
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