Who said listening was a matter of orality???

                   This week was what I'd like to call "The Eye Opener". It was my rude awakening about college life. I received my first papers back on the premise that "reaching for the stars to land on the moon" would give me a good outcome. Who says you can't dream? I thought the promise of a B+, at most ,wouldn't be out of reach.
                 When I my paper was given to me, either personally or via email, my expectations were met. I was ecstatic and upon each of my papers was a comment, the part most people overlook because nobody wants to or likes to give ear to bad news. Comments are an overall assessment of your paper, the pros and cons of it, but they tend to be more critical than praiseworthy. For those received via email, I felt as though I was being cyber bullied and those received personally, it was like they had a disgruntled feeling for not having lunch that day and I was the best person to be thrashed. Upon each of my papers was rhetorical brutality that I could not defend myself against because the crime was in the words, my words and how they were used. Rhetorical because professors speak, at least I believe, when they write these words and consider their arrangement. My part, the hardest part, was to be a student accept this mandate they call "constuctive criticism".
                   When I received these words, a piece of pride is bruised at the expense of these words and sadness is the adjacent feeling...so what's next?? To wallow in self pity or to disregard these words because of anger?? I find that the matter is solved when you listen. When I received the syllabus for rach class, it was like a social contract and it, I signed away my own discretion to place my trust in theirs. So what price do I pay when I listen?? Improvement. Success is small steps of progrssion and what better place to start than with education? I can make words on paper be the illustration of a reality I choose when I listen.