(no subject)
Yesterday I had my final exam in English 204, it was good. I understood the questions and was able to give clear and precise answers for the first part and a long one for the second part. The first one consisted of three quotations where I had to respond to them and identify the author and the title. The other part I had to choose an essay question and write a page including a quotation.
With a final exam, I am usually anxious. Fortunately I wasn’t this time. I was able to fight my attacks while thinking. It was hard getting through the first part but I finished it in 35 minutes. I was given an hour, which I felt was unfair. Mr. Huminski not only grades harshly but also gives an hour for the midterm and final. Usually when you take an exam you are given the whole session. I am not able to perform my best when I have added pressure. I need to be able to deal with my attacks to get through a test. I haven’t talked to Mr. Huminski about my problem. He’ll give me the same answer: “you should meet with your OSD counselor to set up an exam session”.
It was raining so bad in the morning. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and went straight to the bus stop. I don’t brush my teeth, have a bath or comb my hair because there’s no time. My first class starts at 9:00 so I have to catch the 5:23 bus. I splash my face with water, comb my hair, drink water and apply chapstick when I get to school. The chapstick gives my lips this shiny look. I could only use my umbrella for a little bit. The wind was strong so it would have blew my top off if I hadn’t closed it in time. My jeans, backpack and jacket got wet. I had to stay in the library to dry them. They got completely dry during my first class.
I like cloudy weather but I don’t like it when it rains. To me rain is like hail, I want to stay indoors but have to go for a walk anyways. I exercise regardless of whether it’s raining or not. I have walked through snow when it was 38 degrees to get to school and walked through rain storms and lightening storms and hail and what not. Today wasn’t a big deal. If I viewed this type of weather as something bad then I would have had more anxiety attacks. My nature is similar to my mom’s. I don’t sweat the big stuff nor the small things. If something big is happening like a major storm I would stay inside, send my teachers e-mails and check the PCC website for updates.
About the snow thing, I was 22 when that happened. It was the second week of the Winter term and I assumed it was gonna be a regular cloudy day with little or no rain. Surprise! It snowed! In Beaverton it was one inch when I left the house so I assumed it would be the same in Lake Oswego. When my bus was halfway through the city, it stopped because the street was blocked. The snow was so thick that no car could get through. The busdriver said he would drop me off at the Lake Oswego Transit Center, I told him I couldn’t do that because I will not have any way of contacting my parents. He dropped me off on a nearby street and I ended up walking aimlessly with another student as my guide. The air was so cold and I couldn’t feel my hands and face. I couldn’t see well because of the snow and I couldn’t hear either (my hearing aids were in my backpack so they wouldn’t get wet). I was lost and scared with no way to get home. When we saw the car we asked the driver to drop us off at the campus. Over there I had a hard time getting a ride home because the police officer refused to help me. I explained to him my situation and he wouldn’t budge. He told me I could take the Bus #44 to downtown Portland and call somebody there. I was thinking, “that’s not going to work”. so I called my dad on his cell phone a couple of times and he didn’t pick up, he was sleeping at the time. I was stuck at PCC with no way to get home and my home phone number was the only one I knew. I decided if the policeman was not going to help me then I would have to help myself. I walked across the street and went inside the building complex to look for help. There was an office called “northwest nannies” and I asked one of the workers if she could take me home. She said she would take me to Portland and I was thinking “I can’t go there”. Taking me to the Washington square mall was a risk she didn’t want to take because it was dangerous. I then called my father six times and he still didn’t pick up. So I looked through their phonebook for uncle’s phonenumber and called him. He told me he couldn’t pick me up because the road was blocked and he would call Shailesh to help me out. I was too anxious to understand what he said to me and so I said “Ok”. At that point I got more anxious and I went downstairs and inside a store. I asked the clerk if I could use his phone and he said “no”. I then asked him if I could stay inside for an hour and he said no to that as well. I realized that people could be heartless in disastrous situations. I went into another office and called my dad six more times and he still didn’t hear the phone ringing. I asked a man if he could take me home and he said that he would take me to downtown Portland. So I asked another person and she went online to find a way for me to get home. She eventually realized I was stuck and so she told me that she could drive me home since she lives in Beaverton. I was relieved because the office was going to close in an hour. When I got home I was happy that the ordeal was over. I realized that I don’t want to go through that again so I asked my brother to give me his cell phone number.
