April 9, 2008

I just took my last test of the semester before finals (woo-hoo!) and it was overall a decent experience. I didn’t go into the testing center early enough, so I ran out of time at the end, but that’s ok. I feel like I still did pretty good on most of the problems; I was able to work them out, show my work, and feel better about the test than any of the other tests in that class to date.

What happened at the end of the test is what really bothered me. I have been in the testing center until close before, and it’s usually not a bad experience. They give you a few minutes warning, you finish up, and go turn in your test. Tonight, however, it was totally different. After the 15 min warning, there was nothing until the closing call, at which point every light in the room promptly went out, and one of the girls working there started shouting at people to turn in their tests. Now, I understand that they have rules they have to follow, and they are tired from working a long shift, but the way that this employee handled it was totally unnecessary. I hadn’t bubbled in my answers on the scantron yet (like several others), and so I was doing it as I was walking over to hand it in, along with a few others. This girl was literally shouting at some of these guys to hand in their tests immediately and leave.

One lesson that I’ve learned in life is that often you can be more effective in convincing people to work with you by being kind to them. I would have walked away totally appreciative if I had 2 minutes of some light to fill in my answer sheet, pack my backpack, and go hand in my test in peace. I understand, and firmly believe, that you can’t ask nicely and be effective in every situation (e.g. Jesus in the temple with the moneychangers), but in the vast majority of situations in life, you can keep yourself in a good mood, and make others around you appreciate you as well, if you are polite not only when its easy, but in the situations that you could be rude in as well.

School

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