Mondays Mondays

Mondays are bad days for me. Apart from the fact that it’s the first day back to work after a weekend, it also happens to be the longest day for me in the week! As usual, my day starts a little after 7am and then it’s to the office till about 4ish. After that, it’s onto the tram into uni to meet my supervisor for my weekly research meeting. At 6pm, I get into my tutor mode and go for my first tutorial of the day which lasts for an hour and after that it’s 20mins walk to the next tutorial which is another 2 hours. So, by the time I finish my day, it will be nearly 10pm!!!

Although it’s tiring, but weirdly so, it’s very satisfying as well. Tutoring provides some sort of retreat and it really allows my mind to think more critically, rather than normal work day where its either or, neither nor. Those boring kinda stuff, you know. You don’t get a chance to actually think about ideas and how they are relevant to everyday life. It’s funny how society today looks at philosophy and theory as mumbo jumbo when really, they are very much based on every day life! Hopefully one day, people will realize that for a fact. No wonder there are so many people out there being depressed, unsatisfied and frustrated.

Anyway, the Monday that just passed was quite a good one, for me at least. Sometimes I wonder, why these students come all the way here to study and spend all that money, and not put an equal amount of dedication into it. All kinds of excuses for not doing things, not bringing things. I gave them a piece of my mind on Monday evening. Finally they got it. Sometimes some brute telling off works wonders! Hahahahah.

Don’t get me wrong, I am quite a dedicated ‘educator’ (ok, I can hear the snickers coming…. Believe it or not!) which is why I think I get very agitated and annoyed when I have students who don’t take it seriously. I have been very patient (ok, more snickers..) but last week was the last straw. Hahaha.. hope I didn’t traumatize them too much. I didn’t raise my voice or stuff like that. Just using my very firm and condescending tone… hmm……