Oh SNAP!!!

Back in my college days, I got along with almost every member of the faculty in my department. Truth be told, I didn't just get along with them, they lurved me. They enjoyed having me in their classes, appreciated the work that I did, etc. I had very good relationships with all of them... except one. This particular teacher taught a subject that I didn't much care for with a technique that I thought was absolute hogwash. Not only that but because she was extraordinarily pushy, she somehow managed to wrangle her way into teaching several of the classes I had to take to graduate with my degree. She, of course, brought the aforementioned hogwash technique to every class she taught regardless of whether or not it was relevant. I gave her an honest to god shot, I promise. I went into her first class thinking "Ok, what can I learn from you, what can I take from this class?" What I learned and what I took away was that teachers who teach because they've failed in this business are mean, spiteful, petty and generally tend to take whatever "talent" I possess as a personal affront. This woman became a constant thorn in my side. She tried to give me low grades for ridiculous things like not wearing appropriate clothing to class (Umm...I'm pretty sure I was there in my yoga pants just like everybody else.) or not being thorough enough in my writers notebook. (How thorough can one be about breathing?!) Most of the time I just tried to handle her with grace and class but one day, oh, one day she asked for it.

Let me interject here with a couple of facts about myself: The first is that I am fiercely protective of the ones I love. Yes, sometimes this love is misplaced, but the fact remains that if someone I love is hurt or made to look foolish at the hands of another person, woe be unto that person. Do and say whatever you want to me, but tread carefully around my friends and loved ones. (A/N: Q has an excellent story about me yelling, I mean YELLING, at a boy that screwed her over and then had the audacity to try to make her feel bad for not acknowledging his existence.) Secondly, and this has a bit to do with the misplaced love I mentioned earlier, I was somewhat volatile in those days. I'd spent the better part of a year learning how to fight dirty from the best of the best and he'd taught me very well. My fuse was about the length of matchstick.

So one day, I'm in class with this professor and she makes some nasty remarks about the level of ability and talent of the fella I was dating, who also happened to be in that very class. Now granted, she wasn't wrong in what she said about him, but it's nasty and unprofessional to attack a student like that in front of his classmates. I, of course, made a pointed remark to her that landed me in her office after class. I think she tried to scold me which just pissed me off more and I proceeded to put this woman on blast. I called her teaching techniques in to question, I insulted her methods and her own abilities, I believed I may have even mentioned something about how no one liked or or her classes and that none of us ever learned anything because she was a joke and her classes were a waste of our time and money. By the end of the entire tirade, she was crying and I was storming out of her office. I almost felt really bad about the whole thing...almost.

Today, I'm sitting at work and my boss wanders over to my desk to let me know that she's hired a teacher to come teach some classes in the fall and spring. She hands me a resume and whose name is at the top? That's right, dear readers, my old arch nemesis professor.

Uh-oh.