Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Cream of Soup Laude (a.k.a. cum summa laude)

So there are very few things I am good at -- well, even average at. I cannot shoot a basketball, pass a football, play an instrument, speak a foreign language, spell well, or even sew. But I can succeed at school. To say that I am smart would be a stretch, but I can do coursework and write papers well. I excelled in college. I was my niche. When I started college I was barely 18 and naive. I did "okay". I never made below a C, and that was in a Biology lab that I could not understand the language my professor was speaking. Call me crazy, but that had an influence on how much I could comprehend. I was doing okay in college, but my main concern was socialization. My kelly green and pink polos were ever so popular. And I did make an A+ in my ever so rigorous Country Line Dancing class. Then I got married. I all of a sudden became a straight A student. My priorities shifted. I was more concerned with how much green the class was costing me than the green montage I wore to class. My GPA came up, but I was no where near a 4.0 due to that freshman year of kelly green and pink.

When I started my Masters degree, my goal was to graduate with a 4.0 and I was well on my way, until Dr. E's class. I was my ever so chipper self sitting in the front row on the first night of class in Dr. E's class. I was ever so eager to answer the questions and nod in agreement to everything she said. She was so smart. A DOCTORATE -- wow! I was in awe. After class she came up to my table, slammed her palm on my desk, bent down by my face and as she peered over her glasses she grumbled in a stern voice, "We are going to have a come to Jesus meeting."

I thought, "Oh goodie. She is a Christian too." How fortunate was I to not only have a intellectual genius teaching me, but she was a fellow believer. She knew Jesus too. Maybe we could sing campfire songs together!

Reality soon set in as she continued. "If you think your cute smile and antics will get you an A in this class, you are wrong." Well, you can imagine what was running through my head. You can feel it too.....she thought I had a cute smile!

The rest of the semester was a dance of me sucking up and her being more and more disgusted by me. Needless to say, I ended up with an 89.4% in the class. I was devastated. When my grades were posted I knew my dream of graduating with honors was shattered. I called my husband in tears and told him my dreams were gone. "What?" he asked ever so compassionately. "I will never graduate Cream of Soup Laude." I replied.

He just said, "And now I think we all know why."

What? Did he not know Jesus too? Maybe I should have had a Come To Jesus Meeting with him.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hahahahaa! I just love your academics adventure postings! More, more, more! Uni semester is about to start soon and dammit, I need a lot of prodding to step into campus after 4 weeks of blissful break. I'm motivated enough to get my own Cream of Soup Laude. Yessirree. Hahaha!