I just used ignore for the first time ever

[Heddi]

23. Possibly, like next year. School is ramping up and work is, well, work

I'm starting my 3rd class this quarter on Monday, and I'm already in the process of simultaneously writing 4 different papers for 2 classes. This 3rd class will just make writing all the more...gooder. Then in January I take a very intensive research class, and lots of bullshitty paper-writing classes after that.

The bullshittery here is just too much of a distraction. It's one thing to have people, like my patients, who have an sort of "ignorance" about things (like their medical condition) because of the situations beyond their control: being 8th of 17 children born in 1922 in the deep south to parents who were illiterate sharecroppers, dropping out of school in 3rd or 6th grade to help earn money, if a male, possibly in the service (if allowed to because of desegregation) but otherwise having very limited educational experiences by virtue of being African American during Jim Crow days. These folks, now in their 80's, have little to no understanding regarding health conditions, and having dealt with subpar health care for the majority of their lives, no real preventative care until these last years of their lives. I fully understand that their understanding of the intricacies of disease process and management is beyond their comprehension. I get that, and that's why I enjoy working at a place where I have to be creative in my approach to educating patients and their family members.

But it's another thing to deal with people who are, by all accounts, affluent, white, well-educated, multi-degreed and credentialed, and currently or previously employed in high earning occupations that hold a great deal of social sway and prestige, and have these people who have probably spent more time in school than out of school, play this ridiculous game of "me no understand hard words. Me caveman. Fire bad. grrr. Church good...."

It's just offensive to people who REALLY CANNOT grasp complicated issues because of uncontrollable situations of birth, poverty, politics, lack of quality educational opportunities, and racism, to have people who CAN grasp complicated issues play fucking dumb to prove some ridiculous point.