Reframing Disappointment

Thankfully, the time for being overwhelmed is over. However, the time for frustration has commenced. Yesterday, I was informed of what I believe to be an unfair grade. Instead of pouting and whining in my usual way, which I will admit I did for a while, I am trying to learn from the situation, realizing that it will not be the end of the world and won't prevent me from graduating...so why waste my time. As many of you may know, I learn and reflect best through writing, so I want to share the situation here.

Yesterday, I went to pick up my final paper/course grade from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development building. This class was a hard course, so I wasn't expecting an A, but an A- or B+ would have been nice to see. However, instead I saw a "B" for my final paper and a "B-" for my course grade with absolutely no explanation. I promptly e-mailed the professor yesterday morning, but did not hear back until about 4:30 p.m. When we spoke, he told me of a situation that I was surprised he was upset with. The gist of the story is this: I had a lot of friends who had previously taken his course and, being the person I am, I talk to them outside of class. One person mentioned a principle we had not yet talked about in class because it directly related to some of the ideas I was contemplating for my case study. Being the curious soul that I am, I asked her to explain and she did. Somewhat forgetting this situation, we started going over these concepts in class and when he asked the question about the concept my friend and I had discussed, I answered, probably too quickly I will admit. Because I was unable to answer how I figured that out to his liking, and didn't scream out "I talked to someone else about these concepts out of class", and also because I didn't go up to him after class and apologize, he pretty much tanked my class participation grade. In his opinion, it disrupted class and prevented valuable discussion and learning from taking place. I can understand where he is coming from to an extent, but at the same time, if he was troubled by that, he should have said that after class. All in all, I did learn some lessons, but I don't feel I should be "punished" for my action. I believe the rest of my engaged participation should at LEAST neutralize this supposed negative instance. I don't know, I'm a bit disturbed by the whole situation, but it's completely out of my hands now.

So what can I learn from this situation. There are a lot of completely sarcastic answers I could offer. However, at the end of the day, I will learn to humble myself and admit when I'm wrong. And I will also TRY and learn to not take grades so personally, but still work hard to do the best I can. Overall, grades are subjective, so it's hard.

That being said, let's all hope my professor accepts my apology.