Thursday, March 31, 2005

Brief work update

This morning I watched our receptionist sit on the phone for 10 minutes with some woman who kept saying "Harvard is the gold standard". Ironically, neither one of us thinks she's going to apply. In fact, she said as much, but somehow talking about it and going through her resume with a complete stranger is very much so satisfying for some people. Mostly people in Florida because they're going to die soon anyway so they might as well announce it to the world. At any rate, the entire exchange reminded me of some of my more rememorable moments here in the JD Admissions Office. Namely, a few weeks ago when some woman called me and talked to me for 30 minutes about her child and life in general. I'm not sure I'm exactly qualified to give advice to a 32 year old woman with a baby, but by golly I did my best. I'm also reminded of yesterday when some middle schooler called to discuss a "project" that she had to do. As per the request of a friend, I shall recreate the conversation below.

"Hello, JD Admissions."
"Hi...."
*pause*
"Hi."
"I'm doing a, uh, a project, or something, on college and I need to interview someone."
"K."
"So... can I ask you some questions?" *chewing noises*
"Well, this is a graduate office. I'd be happy to help you out, but if the project is for a college, I could transfer you to the undergraduate admissions office."
*more chewing noises* "No that's alright. I chose Harvard Law School."
"Well go ahead then."
"What are the mi...ni..mum, like, stan....standards for getting into, um, law school?"
"Well I can only speak for Harvard, but we require an undergraduate degree from an accredited college. That's pretty much the only thing we require."
"Okay." *chewing* "Does knowing Latin help with law school?"
"I'm sorry?"
*chewing*
"You're asking if knowing Latin helps with law school. Now."
"Yeah."
"Um. Only insofar in that it helps with the basic understanding of romance languages. Or if, you know, speak Latin in your everyday life."
"Oh. Can I have your name? I have to have a name to *chewing and maybe swallowing* attach to my project."
"It's Meg."
"What?"
"Megan."
"Okay. Thank....you."
"Righty-o."

So now she's going to learn Latin and I have, yet, again, improved the life of some naive child. Go me. AND I saw the crazy man who jumped on my marzipan bunny yesterday in the Square again. I made a stangled noise of fear and scampered away. Bunny killer. www.savetoby.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

your name's not megan! even i know that.

M said...

It's true. I have propogated the myth mostly because it's better than saying "Meg" over 30 times. Besides, that way no one can stalk me unless they put real effort into it. I want people who care, dammit!