Klasse is begonnen!
(Sorry, I’m just trying to brush up a bit on my Dutch to feel a little more inclusive)
Ha, who am I kidding. I only know ‘Dank You’ in the entire Dutch dictionary. But nonetheless, classes have indeed started this week and I just ponned my first class today. BRAND MANAGEMENT. As I quote the wise words of Tan Fei Fan, “Obviously the Prof has failed in his area of expertise.”
I’m not actually proud that I skipped class but I was really dozing off in the lecture hall that seemed so vast. The entire lecture hall (or auditorium, as they call it) had wooden chairs and tables, and wooden floors that creaked whenever someone walked up and down. The musty smell of the hall obviously lacked decent ventilation. And they used YELLOW lighting which is obviously sleep-inducing. So I honestly don’t think anyone can blame me for leaving the lecture hall after 1 hour. Yeah and the lecture was poised to be held from 2pm to 6pm. At least I stayed for one hour…
Wait. “Is that a 4 HOUR LECTURE????”, you must be wondering.
Uhm, hell yeah! And look, it’s after lunch.
Well, so anyway I also had a class at 9am today called Performance Management. Which is somewhat an OBHR course (For the benefit of my non-SMU readers, OBHR = Organizational Behavior & Human Resources) that I actually enjoyed. Despite doing selective listening, as usual.
And the Prof who is also KU Leuven’s HR General Manager, says this,
“I gave my input when my subordinates asked for my comments. Obviously they were trying to manage their boss by asking me what I think so that they can deliver it exactly that way. So I did give them my inputs as how one would typically do with PhD students. But obviously these were my opinions and how you want to use with them is your decision. At the end of the day, they literally gave me exactly what I said. Which should not be the way to go.”
And BOOM.
I had a revelation.
Just one night ago, I was looking at my SMU curriculum requirements. Happy to know that I have 8 more modules left in my final year. But I was so annoyed with my C+ grade for a Business, Govt., & Society (BGS) module. If not for that ugly grade, all my Uni Core modules would be rather pleasing to the eye at one glance. Then all the emotions started to overwhelm me once more.
Let’s just call her CY.
‘Bitch. Two-faced. Lousy teacher. Does not even qualify to be called a Professor………………………’
All the negative adjectives swamped my mind. I really hated her to the core. And I still get so angry thinking about it sometimes.
But today, I was reminded to let it go.
(One does not simply use Queen Elsa’s phrase, and not include her picture!)
If nobody challenged the Professor’s notion, you’re just doing what he/she wants. You don’t put yourself at the other spectrum and you risk the chance of losing the higher credits anyway. As they said, ‘Low risk, low returns.’ Furthermore, at the end of the semester, you would have only learnt how to think exactly like the Professor if you delivered something entirely as per their comments. Which is why, coming to think of it, I am glad my C+ grade shows that I am so much more capable than CY’s narrow-mindedness?
So in the future when I become an HR Manager (second revelation for today), I am not going to hire the A-studded student. I will hire the one with the random C grade because there is a story behind that hideous grade. Because nobody wants to have Bs and Cs on their report card. But SOMEBODY has to be part of the Bell Curve. And if 90% of the cohort decides to score 97/100 while the other 10% decides to score 90/100, I am sure it’s not very fair to the poor chap……..
I guess this is an odd post of random revelations. But really, if you’re way below the Average Joe like myself, take heart. I’m sure you just haven’t found it yet. But when you do, trust me, you’re gonna soar.
And if all else fails, you may sing along:
Nomz, Cam