Prior to college, I only ever failed geometry, during second semester of my sophomore year, when there was a LOT of family drama going on. So much family drama, in fact, I had no idea I’d failed it until my senior year. I never noticed that I hadn’t gotten my report card that summer.

Not gonna lie, I cried like a baby when I found out. I was like “wat? WAT?!” and then I called my mother, texted my BFF, and just started BAWLING. It’s been a serious suck on my overall happiness and wellbeing over the last year.

I’m also a very kinesthetic learner, and I struuuuuuuuggled with sitting still in lecture. Of course, I also struggled in a lot of labs because I got overwhelmed by all the sensory input. But when a lab was well-paced, I was GOLDEN.

I actually did weirdly well in orgo. There has been a lot of discussion about this because a lot of academic people are deeply confused when I’m like “yeah, I SUCKED BALLS at gen chem and biochem but was good at orgo? No, I don’t get it either.”

It was a grave disappoint and personal insult to me to get to college and discover that astronomy was nothing but physics with an attitude problem. I grew up stargazing with my dad and chasing comets with our telescope and stuff. Man, fuck you, physics.

I scraped through a few classes in high school because I nailed the finals. Miracles happen~

Oh man. This hurts me. A great many of the classes I struggled in were mostly on me—namely, on my brain just not working properly. I have ADHD, an anxiety disorder and dyscalculia—doing a degree in the sciences was always going to be an uphill battle, even at a small, caring school where they were genuinely trying to…

I have had more than a few classes where the quizzes had fuck-all to do with anything else we were studying. Why do they DO that? What is it supposed to ACCOMPLISH?

I actually said “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” out loud and scared the shit out of my cat. Oh my gooooooooooood I am so sorry. That is terrible and I legit had nightmares about shit like this at various points in my college career.

OH MY GOD. Can we have a hate session for biochem? Those motherfucking LABS. I still feel the hatefire bubbling when I hear the word “standard curve.” AAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

I think I would also have an anxiety attack in the middle of a managerial accounting class. Jesus.

I was so sure, and so pitifully, pitifully sure, that after all these years (I’ve been in college since 2004—I was an English major first, then switched to biology), I would end up having to basically do the same, because I just couldn’t handle having to take physics again. I already had to give up my microbiology…

I actually did really well in stats, because a) I’m good with patterns and b) my professor was like maybe a year or two from retiring and was completely and totally out of fucks to give. But there was a class or two (or more) where I definitely got a better grade than I really deserved by extra credit and a…

Oh my god. Did you have to repeat the labs too?

I had to spend some quality bonding time with more than one professor in the math department over beginner and intermediate algebra...and fucking precalculus. I took beginner algebra once, intermediate twice, and precalculus three times. I also took each semester of gen chem twice, though I breezed through orgo…

Jezzies, I just passed physics after my third attempt, which means I GET TO GRADUATE AND MOVE THE FUCK ON WITH MY LIFE.

My mom is about as happy and cheerful as they come, and very femme. Nails always done, makeup always perfect, favorite color is pink. My mom is also FIERCE AS HELL when it comes to her children, and is Southern to her bones. So when my sister called her sobbing hysterically one night because her recent ex-boyfriend…

Well, bless your heart, you sure embraced your wrongness passionately.

what does it say about me that my first guess was “is this person in the SCA?”

oh my god no, I haven’t. And now I need to.