Retrenchment, Day 49
I got some responses to my questions yesterday. One viewer of my videos said a "because of retrenchment" series is valuable as a primary record and that it resonated with his own experiences. Several others said they liked the storytelling and "narrative sensemaking" element. Some others said it might be a good idea to leave off the griping and focus on the positive future. I agree I'm better off investing my energy there. Dealing with the other stuff saps me. I didn't go to a social hour my union was hosting yesterday evening that I usually do attend. Went to CrossFit instead.
There are definitely still things to gripe about, at BSU. I just paid my son's bill at Mankato and it had a $192.50 BSU charge added. It had remained at $443.50 for a while, during the week or so I tried to get an explanation. After telling me they couldn't talk to me about it because of confidentiality, they sent my son a bunch of screen prints from a series of emails between the bookstore and the business office. Apparently my son neglected to return one of the books he "borrowed" for his PSEO classes and the loan reverted to a sale. And there was another book that was damaged by a semester of use, so they decided to charge him for it. Also there seemed to be something in there saying he had returned a book he hadn't got from the bookstore, so they threw it in the donation pile. I'm not sure whether, how, or when they may have tried to contact my son. At one point the business office shared his phone number with the bookstore manager, but there's no record of any calls made. And then the $443.50 (which I still couldn't tell what added up to that sum) became $192.50. I still have no idea what that charge might cover or why it changed. But I went ahead and paid it so I wouldn't have to think about it any longer. That's always how they get you, isn't it?
So I guess I'll change this to a Career Journey diary, from retrenchment to whatever is next. It's definitely a "because of retrenchment" journey. Although I was already pursuing things like Open Ed and writing my own course content and blogging, the events of this retrenchment have definitely lit a fire under my butt. And I like the discipline of focusing on this each morning and saying something. Makes me think things through. So I'll keep doing that.