12.06.2002 - 2:29 p.m.

Trying to cover for an absent professor. Surrounded all week by poor, lost freshmen.

I don't know how long their paper is supposed to be. I don't know for sure when it's due, either.

For me it seems obvious that in the absence of real direction, they could do whatever they wanted. They know what they need to write about, so it should be however long it needs to be for them to say those things. I know it's probably due on Friday, so they could plan for that. If I'm wrong, they can always say, "But Sarah said..." and get their full grade. It's only a paper.

But they keep asking. As if they expect me to answer, "oh, right, I just remembered this conversation I had with your prof, and he said it should be 7.5 pages long, and actually it's due by noon on Monday..." But I'm almost entirely sure that no such conversation took place. Entirely sure.

I am trying to remember if any paper was ever worth that much worry on my part. My senior project was pretty nerve-racking, but that was because it was a yearlong thing, and I had to present it at the end. And even then I can remember thinking, eh, I'll do the bibliography tomorrow, they won't ask me to read that part out loud...

Maybe I am just failing to put myself back into the emotional shoes I wore back then. I mean, it really is pretty funny from this end, and that's bound to screw with my sense of empathy.

-stonebridge

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