Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Rant: Frustrations

Blargh. Day 2 of classes and already I'm stressing out hardcore, but not over classes. Oh no, classes wouldn't stress me out quite as much as some of the people and drama around me.
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1. I don't know why, but I've been really snappy and short at my roommate. Little things he does seem to set me off in a corner of my mind. He doesn't understand that my family is quite strapped financially this year, and he even suggested that my brother or I get a part-time job. But we're med students . . . there's precious little time for adequate decompressing, much less a job.

Also, he keeps stating how talking about psychiatry and medical ethics are worthless unless we're immediately faced with those dilemmas. I vehemently disagree, as I believe that understanding how people think and how to reason through even hypothetical ethical conundrums are useful. He argues that because we're reasonable people with common sense, that those qualities alone are generally sufficient. Well, if they were truly sufficient we wouldn't have a need for ethics committees. I could go on and on, but I don't want to sound like I'm foaming at the mouth.

I've decided that I can't discuss such matters with him. He never accepts anything I say as valid and tries to "light-heartedly" discount my points, and I just get frustrated. I'm putting my foot down: I'm not discussing this with him from now on.
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2. There's tension between one of my friends, her roommate (my treasurer for one of the student groups I'm in), and me. Let's say my friend is M and her roommate is K.

So K sent both of us a rather bitchy email earlier telling us that she doesn't like how we've been talking about her to each other. M gets furious at this email. And I must admit, it did cast a dark cloud over my head for several hours.

I reply to K's email and tactfully apologize. She is pacified by this. Then M sends me a message on gchat asking me why I bothered apologizing. I replied that it was a tactical decision, not a personal one. I needed to be on good terms with K because we still need to work together, and if she's mad at me then things I've worked really hard on over the summer will fall apart. M isn't satisfied by this and is furious at K.

Then later I send an email to one of the deans, K, and M concerning a program that M told me about. Apparently, I had misinterpreted the reason that M brought the program to my attention in the first place, and she would've rathered that I hadn't sent the email before consulting her. Argh. Clearly, in my good intentions some grief has backlashed onto me.

Well, I had to apologize to M, of course, and explain that the intent wasn't to usurp her student group's program, but rather to bring it up as an example/model to develop an elective curriculum on. After my apologies and explanations, M seemed more or less pacified. She at least understands the good intent with which I sent that email.

Why are women so hard to deal with?!?! With guys, decisions tend to come quickly and easily with no feelings hurt (usually). With women, one must take into account their MOODS.
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At least with small-ish issues, I can resolve things pretty quickly and have people forgive me fairly easily. It's the larger issues that tend to linger and dwell on my mind for way too long.

It's only the 2nd day of classes, and already I'm at wit's end standing dangerously near the precipice of sanity looking over the chasm of insanity.

5 comments:

Biki Honko said...

Why are women so hard to deal with? I haven't got a clue! They just won't let things go either, this I'm sure will come back to haunt you at a later date....yeah I know just what you wanted to hear, sorry.

All I do know was that the two boards that I was a member of, both were primarily women, and little to nothing ever got done. The same things would be hashed over week after week after months. I was considered "not a team player" because I refused to allow them to just waffle around, and would routinely force votes so that something could be accomplished.

So, you can either be the nice guy, and let them piss away your year in office, or you can bully them into making decisions. Either way, it will not be smooth sailing, sorry.

Anonymous said...

And at least with guys' decisions, if there are hurt feelings, it's generally no surprise. It's just the way things are and you know it's going to be that way.

I think interacting with straight girls is fun and interesting. Generally speaking, the drama washes over me and leaves me untouched. I find my sexuality helps for some reason. I swear, some day I'm going to write a book on straight women for straight men (or other straight women), like the outsider's perspective.

As for the sanity...just jump. It's better than being shoved off the edge by matters out of your control. :P

Fickle Cattle said...

Re: your roommate,I totally understand your decision. I've learned that sometimes it is better to steer clear of arguments before they start. It can be really annoying when someone spouts off nonsense, and you just sit there wanting to shout at the person to say, omg that is the silliest thing ever.

http://ficklecattle.blogspot.com/

Mac Callister said...

too much going on already eh?just relax and have fun,its just the 2nd day of class anyway!

. said...

Hey Aek, hope you have a great week ahead!! I like the picture of "frustration". Be well and hang in there!! P.S. Ignore that stupid roommate. :)