It’s been a busy couple of weekends of practices, clinics, and games with our team for the Vancouver Ultimate League’s fall schedule. The team name is a tip of the hat to our favourite sushi restaurant, The Eatery, we’ve dubbed our team “I can’t believe it’s not chicken” - a reference to Randy’s delicious tuna tempura creation.
It’s kind of good to be out getting exercise - I’m kind of out of shape, but not as bad as I would have thought. The game involves a lot of running and, unlike last year during C-Fest 2002, my knees and ankles are holding up well. I’m still trying to get the hang of the “throwing/running/catching” thing that some of the more advanced teams make look so easy, but I guess it’ll just come in time.
I’m actually enjoying the game quite a bit, which is odd. There aren’t many sports that I actually enjoy. As a kid I played soccer (though I think that only lasted for a season), and a teenager I rode my bicycle a fair bit and trained in Judo. But I’ve never really seriously done a team sport with a lot of running. It’s kind of neat. The whole “spirit of the game” aspect of Ultimate is quite appealing, especially when I suck so badly. Oh well, it’ll just take time and practice.
Last week, I returned to school for the final semester of my MBA. Not one hour into the new semester, I received a deluge of email from people I hadn’t talked to all summer (or rather, hadn’t talked to me all summer) - all of them seeking technical assistance of one type or another. I like to help, but this is ridiculous.
Throughout this program, I’ve spent a lot of my personal time helping people with their computers. I understand computers are hard for a lot of people, so I try to help them when I can. Unfortunately, people started taking this for granted. I provided help with viruses. I provided help with using software and the network. I gave away software people needed to get their work done. When people called after 11:00pm and I was already in bed, I still got up and helped them. One time, I gave almost the entire class a piece of software required to create PDFs because some professor decided that PDFs were the only format he’d accept for electronic submissions. I wasn’t even in the class. Afterwards, about six people (out of 90 who downloaded the software) thanked me.
I’m getting tired of being people’s backup plan, their excuse not to figure things out for themselves. I’m tired of people’s inability to plan, learn, or read instructions. Professors seem to encourage this behaviour as well: Don’t have the assignment done, despite the fact that it was assigned five weeks ago? No problem! They’ll just extend the deadline a week, thereby screwing anyone who bothered to plan ahead and get the paper done in time! Yeah, that kind of lesson will really serve these MBAs well once they get out in the real world.
This kind of thing is wearing me down not just in school, but everywhere. It’s beginning to feel like my ability to get organized, plan, and think ahead are liabilities. It seems at every turn I get punished for being better. Take the MBA Bursary fiasco, for example: Part of my $28K tuition went to paying for bursaries so a bunch of people who didn’t get their finances in order before entering the MBA could have it a little easier. Didn’t bother to figure out what you wanted to do in life? No problem! We’ll just ask people like Brendon who bothered to get their lives in order to do more, or pay more to make up for your lack of planning!
Let me be clear: I want to help. I’m ready to help anyone who’s down on their luck, has tried everything and is in genuine need. But I don’t want to be exploited.