Being a student
Having been a student of a government institute, I quite know the woes of tackling the administration people there. Quite a lot of people will nod their head, when I tell similar stories of how they would make you wait for silly stuff like getting an examination form signed or submitted, or paying fees or for that matter enquiring about student issues. The 4 years of engineering taught me a great deal about the virtue called patience and the importance of the "smile". Because people in these departments just loved imposing their misguided sense of power on us students. And just smiling away on their mean deeds and not losing our patience meant a lot.
And when after almost 6 years of having learnt my way through such situations, where you keep on telling yourself that just get the work done without taking anything personally or losing your temper, I experienced a familiar situation today. And it just strengthens my observation that people everywhere are the same. Put them in a slightly superior position than yours and they will make sure that your life becomes miserable or at least make you feel less good about yourself.
And this is strictly my personal observation. I am not trying to put anyone in bad light. This kind of human behaviour amuses me and sometimes angers me too.
I am an F-1 student who has graduated and waiting for her EAD card to arrive to start working. And my start date is getting closer and I have not received anything from the USCIS. So quite naturally I was concerned and wanted to know more about what could be done from my end to expedite the process. So I went to meet the International Center advisor. The first thing she did was lecture me on how students should not wait for their offer letters to apply for an EAD card and you might be brilliant getting loads of offers from companies, but you should not wait (Come on, like all this stuff about my brilliancy was REALLY needed.). She has to tackle 1000s of cases like mine everyday and hence very patiently nodding my head and understanding her point of view, I agreed. But the next thing she said which totally made me lose it was 'so admit that this is your mistake'. Yes ladies and gentlemen, these are the exact words she used.
(In short you not getting your employment authorization is your mistake). Well I kind of knew that even before going to meet her. I was just hoping for getting some help. DUH!
First thing that popped in my head was 'Come on we are not here to discuss that!'. But I lost my temper after that and said, 'I agree my application got delayed. But what is done is done. We cannot keep on blaming each other for stuff that is already done. What I would like to know is what can be done from here on, so that your student doesn't remain jobless.'
May be I might not get more co-operation from her end in the future. May be if I had accepted my mistake (so that she felt better) she would have called USCIS to expedite the process. or May be this is just her way of making students feel bad about themselves for having a job offer in hand. May be its not even worth all this time and energy (of writing the post). But I know it isn't about admitting my mistake or anything I said or wrote. Its about having to say NO to your student for any help. And since you cannot do that in a straightforward way you make them feel bad about themselves.
~nightflier