My job is more emotional than I expected it to be. 95% of the people I talk to are the normal questions, normal people. But every once in a while I get one that stands out--whether for a good reason or a bad reason. I have been so angry/annoyed, and actually almost cried twice, one of which was today (story to follow). Sometimes my heart hurts so much because I want a person to get into UT so bad, because I can tell how much it would be to them. (I'm such a mom--and I'm not even a mom). Anyway--a few stories:
Last week this random man called in to the Admissions office and asked if he could have *Susie's* address. We have all student's personal information, but of course we're not allowed to give any of it out--not even to parents if the student is over the age of 18. So I asked "Can I ask why you need her address?"He huffed and sounded so annoyed, "Because I want to send her something." Duh! So I told him I was sorry, but I couldn't give out her private information. He got all annoyed and asked if an address was really private information. What?! Where an 18 year old girl lives? You really think I'm going to give that to you? Creepy! If it's so important and she knows you enough for you to be sending her something, can't you ask her for her address? Why are you calling the UT Admissions Office? Anyway, he hung up in a huff. Creep. I was so MAD that he would act like I was the crazy one, refusing to hand out a teenage girl's address to some random guy on the telephone.
Then today I got a another call to remember. The reception was horrible and I could hardly hear him. We were talking and he said he wanted to come to UT in 2010. He was currently serving in Iraq--yes, currently, like he was calling me from Iraq-- and wanted to plan for when he was released. My heart swelled for him. It was crazy to think that he was actually there, in the middle of a war, talking to me, planning for a distant future, and I was sitting at work pouting that I had to go to the Employee Fall Festival instead of getting a lunch break. I was almost in tears as we talked about what he needed to do to apply for Summer 2010. And when I hung up I said a little prayer that he, whoever he was, could come home and be a Volunteer.
I don't know why I get so emotionally invested! This is a warning sign that Social Work would be a rough career choice for me! ha ha.
3 comments:
I know what you mean. I had a guy yell at me yesterday because we hadn't posted recent figures for our mutual funds quick enough for him. And then the other 80 calls were people being mad/sad/scared/frustrated that they're losing money on their investments. I really wanted to call in today. :(
Ah man, I feel for ya. Being in the social work field myself, working specifically with recovering heroin addicts, I see a lot of people that my heart goes out to, its definitely tough.
i did the ugly cry reading your story. its good to have experiences like that.
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