men speaking at 8 AM should be illegal
Amidst working two jobs, running a small bakery out of my house, reading a book a week, teaching myself Italian, and surviving a pandemic, I never thought I’d ever start college. Last week I began my journey at Fordham University with high hopes and excitement. As someone who has always loved school, it was a relief to begin to step into this routine again. Despite it feeling somewhat normal now to conduct Zoom calls for classes and meetings, it felt different. It felt as if I wasn't actually in school.
There’s just something so unfulfilling about clicking a Zoom link to stare at initials and endure awkward silence for an hour and 15 minutes, then turn your mic on to mumble a quick, “Thank you professor,” before shutting your laptop in relief despite not actually doing anything. Try explaining that to someone this time last year, I guarantee you they wouldn’t understand a word you’re saying.
In addition to the weirdness of starting college in this way, I now have boys in my classes. As someone who went to an all-girls school for 4 years, it feels almost illegal to hear men speak at 8:30 AM. I stand by that. I also forgot how much privilege comes with just being a man in general. I mean really. Do you have to ask multiple times when office hours are when you could easily click on the syllabus and check yourself? Notice how all the women on those calls do the work and try to find the answer before asking…not all men do that…but enough where it’s noticeable…this will probably get me in trouble later in life…but… I stand by it.
I could also do without mansplaining for the rest of my life (love that “mansplaining” didn’t autocorrect). I forgot how much men like to explain to women how things work even if you know you have a better understanding. To give you an idea of my first major encounter with this, here’s how my Tuesday went. I was speaking with a classmate about campaign finance. Despite working in depth for months with a former Senator, studying campaign finance, memorizing fundraising laws and policies, a male classmate proceeded to explain that despite that experience, he had taken a single economics course and therefore understood the entirety of not only campaign finance, but the ins and outs of the GDP. I nodded, smiled when appropriate, and let it go. Should I have fought it? Probably. Was it 8 in the morning and was I already tired of hearing men talk? Absolutely.
Despite the craziness of a pandemic plaguing our world, beginning school in this way, learning to balance work and school, and adapting to co-ed schooling again, I feel incredibly blessed to have these opportunities. While it might be stressful and difficult to manage at times, I am so lucky to be worried about these things. Having an education and a job are both things that many in America cannot and will not have due to reasons outside of their control. So I’m taking it day by day and thanking the universe everyday I have these stressors. Who knows what I’d do without these new beginnings spicing things up every once and awhile.
(PS to the boys out there this is a joke please don’t go psycho night stalker on me. thanks)
