Another chapter in the ongoing saga drama that is my life at KU. You would think university students, especially KU students, ESPECIALLY KU students, would be given all the encouragement, all the motivation by their professors. What with all the crap we go through, all the obstacles, all the set-backs, all the stupidity and incompetence we deal with on a daily basis. Lack of parking space, the fact that we still have BLACKBOARDS. And I mean the chalk and green slate hanging on the wall type. The rickety wood chairs and desks covered in century-old gum and slime. As if it weren't bad enough that I have to get a signed "contract" two weeks in advance allowing me to borrow the one and only data show available on campus, so I can give my flimsy presentation to a bunch of inconsiderate, unappreciative group of shitheads.
Oh no, that wasn't enough. That most certainly is not enough torture.
A few weeks back, we had been asked to write a two page essay assignment to be handed in two weeks or so later. The question, I distinctly remember, was to "explain what you know about the creation, history and evolution of writing systems".
I was floored when I was given back my paper. Floored is an understatement.
Instead of the customary green comments and remarks covering every available nook and cranny, there was a mere two lines at the very end of the paper, telling me that I had earned myself a zero, for copy-pasting and plagiarism.
Plagiarism.
I do not deny that I've done my share of stealing in the past. Oh and gotten away with it plenty of times. I guess Karma's come back to take a chunk out of my ass.
I was facing anything from a mere zero on that one paper, to an F in the course, to an F in my entire semester, all the way to debarment from university.
Yes, after seven years trying to earn a linguistics degree from the prestigious University of Kuwait, I was on the verge of losing it all. All in the blink of an eye.
I would not have been peeved had I not worked my ass on that paper. I would not have been peeved if I had all the time in the world to devote all my effort into this sole subject and its many time consuming demands.
Unlike the other students papers which were covered in links and page numbers and paragraphs that they had presumably stolen from, my paper had no mention of anything of the sort. Nothing for me to go by.
So what was the professor going by? A hunch. Suspicion, pure and simple. It was inconceivable for him to believe that a KU student was capable of writing a decent essay. Maybe he was expecting second-grade quality writing, really, I don't know what he expected from senior year, graduating students. Now we get penalized for doing well, for putting some honest effort into our work.
I would have been flattered, had I not been accused of something I had not done. Had the paper not been worth so much. Had my integrity, my future, not been on the line. Had I not had a billion other things to worry about, to have this load added to the many burdens weighing heavily on my shoulders.
When I confronted him in his office, he said that not only was there information in my paper that had not been mentioned in class, and that it was unusual for students to be creative enough to bring outside information (all I did was mention smoke signals - who hasn't heard of those before?) but also, my "writing style is so good, he cannot believe that a student in KU majoring in linguistics, of all things, could write this way". I almost gave him the link to my blog and blown my cover so he can compare the writing style, but after mentioning that it was somewhat x-rated, he declined, and made another proposition.
The proposition was to come the next day, fully prepared to write an essay while under supervision. He would give me a number of questions, and I would be given the freedom to chose the essay question that I would like to write about. We made an appointment for 12 the next day.
Being the cocky person that I am, when asked whether I would like to bring a dictionary along, I vehemently declined the offer. I wanted to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what a jackass he was for ever doubting that a KU student could -gasp shock horror - actually write an essay.
I had less than a day to go over the entire syllabus. Cram my brain with every piece of information, everything that we had covered during the semester. Yeah, you'd think I would've gotten cracking. Hah! After crying my eyes out in sheer anger and frustration, I passed out, only to wake up the next morning, pressed for time, barely making it to class, after which was my opportunity to prove and redeem myself. I thought to myself, well it's physically impossible to cover that much material in such a short amount of time, so fuck it, why even bother? I was in a lose-lose situation all the way. He was convinced I was a liar and there was nothing in this world that I could do to prove otherwise, no matter what I did.
You'd think he would've at least made it an open book exam, since the original assignment had been open book. Not only was it NOT open book, but I had a mere 50 minutes to spill my heart out.
Oh if only you had seen the questions he had posed.
