Whining, not Pining

I hadn’t planned to write another post full of complaints. I’m a mother; I intrinsically hate whining. Yet, here I am, with nothing but frustration and disappointment (and an awful pun in the title) to share. Here it is, in a nutshell: I missed my lab in the field yesterday. It was one of those moments where life is chaos, pure and simple. I left for Boulder early, only to face slippery roads (covered in several inches of slush from Monday’s snowstorm) and heavy traffic. I made it to the park-n-ride where I catch a regional bus at what would normally be a reasonable time. If the busses were running on time, I’d make it in time to run to the classroom. They weren’t.

I made it to campus exactly five minutes after the van (which is affectionately called the "vomit comet") left for the hills. I didn’t need the ride on windy mountain roads to feel ill; my anxiety was enough. Sometimes it feels nearly impossible to be a non-traditional student at a traditional university. As I walked around the grounds, I couldn’t help notice how young most of the other students were. They probably didn’t need to help a first grader get dressed and off to school before their class that morning. Most of them didn’t even need to ride in to school in traffic, on busses or otherwise, as they tend to live on or near campus. Plus, it’s Boulder.

In the end, my day wasn’t all educational gloomy misfortune and wandering like an outsider. I had an exam in symbolic logic that I had to stick around for. Perhaps because I had extra time to review my truth tables, I was able to finish the test quickly and easily. As it turns out, missing the lab won’t have much of a negative impact on my grade... I’m just seriously bummed that I missed it. I’ll still get to do the data analysis part (yey) so I’ll still be able to close up the post I began on Monday. And, thankfully, future field labs come later in the season, hopefully after snowy delays are no longer a threat. Those other students may have little trouble getting to class, but they don’t have the sort of perspective like I’ve gained (like it or not) over my years out of school. Aside from traffic delays, I don’t have to struggle to get good grades. Finally, I have plenty of other things to write about, so I really oughtn’t be pouting here.

So I’ll stop.