Category: Writers Block
This is going to be a memoir. These are some memories from Colorado
when I did the xummer program back in 2007. To give you all some
background information, my roommates were Tamilah and Amelia.
It was a Sunday night in the middle of July. Our counselor had her night
off. Tamilah was at a going away party for one of the counselors, and
Amelia and I were in the apartment. Amelia was in our room, and I was
lying on the couch. I was just lying there when there was a knock on the
door. I opened the door, and there stood the neighboor from downstairs.
"Can you guys please keep it down? I am trying to go to bed, and my
bedroom is right above yours. I have a meeting tomorrow that I have to
wake up early for."
"Sure. My roommate might be bouncing."
"Can you please tell her to stop?" He asked.
"Yes I will."
I opened the door to our room and walked in. "The neighbor from
downstairs was just here," I began, "he asked us to keep the noise down,
so I think you really should stop bouncing."
"I'm not doing anything," Amelia said.
I didn't think she was doing anything, at this point I had no reason not to
believe her. I didn't hear her doing anything. I went back on the couch,
and after a few minutes, there was another knock on the door. I was
laughing and I opened the door.
"I know you think this is funny, but it isn't! It's disrespectful!" the guy from
downstairs was yelling.
"We're not doing anything," I told him.
"Someone is bouncing!" he yelled and then he demonstrated what he was
hearing.
"My roommate said she isn't doing anything."
"If this doesn't stop tonight, I'm calling the police!" he yelled.
"Ok I'll go talk to her."
I closed the door and went inside. I walked to our room and I laughed.
"What is so funny? Amelia asked, thinking I was just laughing about nothing
like I usually do.
"The guy from downstairs came back and said if we don't stop the noise
he's calling the police."
"Oh shit!" Amelia exclaimed, "I was bouncing on the bed with my
headphones in. I always do that. I didn't think he could hear that."
I tried going back outside to talk to the man.
"I told her to stop she told me that she was bouncing I told her to stop," I
told him.
"Good because I'm calling the police if it doesn't stop!" he yelled.
I went inside and headed for our room, and it was locked.
"Let me in!" I told Amelia.
"What happened?" She said after she opened the door.
"I told him you were bouncing and I told him that I told you to stop and I
told him that I told you what he said about how he's going to call the
police if you don't stop."
"Yeah I better stop before we get in a lot of trouble," she said.
When Tamilah came in, Amelia and I were both laughing.
"What happened?"
Amelia and I told her the whole story.
"Okay guys calm down," she said after we laughed for a few more minutes,
"we don't need to get in any more trouble."
We both agreed and then we settled down. We knew our counselor would
find out about this. Amelia should have just admitted it from the start that
she was bouncing. The police threat worked. I guess she just didn't think
she could be heard, but now we just have to be more careful.
I'm responding so this post is on the top.
Lame
My roommate should have just admitted she was bouncing. It made me look
bad to tell the man we weren't making noise when we really were. I didn't
hear any noise, so I didn't know.
Five little monkeys bouncing on the bed,
One fell off and broke his head.
Wait ...
in this case two fell off who had been dropped on their heads.
and apparently, they didn't actually help. meaning CCB. Or, did you actually get anything out of the program? Definitely sounds like you didn't, based on some of the cihldish things about which you have written.
The stand-out line in this, for me, was when she admits that she frequently laughs for no reason at all.
Just a lunatic.
Leo, I legitimately LOL'ed.
The post about monkey's jumping on the bed sure made me laugh, smiles.
Yeah no the CCB didn't help me. They don't assess your skill level or
anything; they show you something once and then expect you to know it.
They had us crossing streets on our own, and I couldn't cross streets
independently. They should have assessed our skill level to see where we
were at first. When it was time to go home, they had us go to the airport on
our own when we weren't even taught how to navigate an airport and check
in independently. As far as the noise thing went, whenever there was a noise
complaint, the neighbor would call the apartment complex or the landlord or
whoever was in charge of that. That person would call the center (the
center we attended) and then the word would come back to us.
And yet you made it, across the street, home via the airport. And btw, I don't think many of us navigate airports alone. We get a sighted guide.
Exactly and when I was crossing the streets, I once almost got hit by a car.
I wasn't taught how to do it properly.
Ugh. I'm glad I wasn't there at the same time this waste of oxygen was.
How old were you at this summer program that you didn't know how to cross a street independently?
If you were having issues you should have told them.
The skills they teach you in travel and other classes in the summer program at CCB are transferrable to any situation wherever you are. a lot of your success hinges on how much you actually take the initiative and practice exploring the neighborhood outside of class either in a group or by yourself, if you feel comfortable traveling alone.
It may feel like they're teaching you something once and expecting you to pick up on the concept or whatever it is immediately, but if that's the case, you should have spoken up and told your instructor you were having difficulty understanding what they were teaching you. Some teenagers don't do that; I used to be one of the soft-spoken, kind-of withdrawn and itnroverted types, and to some extent, I am still an introvert, but I know when to ask for help, and understand it's okay to ask for it. The instructor is not going to get that you're having problems unless you actually say something to them, but go about it in a respectful way. Advocacy is definitely something that not all TVI's teach to their students, but that is a different subject altogether.
Sorry you had such difficulty at CCB; those programs are not for everyone, but they are very good at what they do if you can handle that kind of instruction.
Yeah. They definitely teach you how to do things more than once. Lol. I was there
too at one point. Lol. Just some people's children.