Tales of a Brown-Haired Freak

With SGA, that is. After getting home close to midnight last night, I did what any sensible monkey would do and slept late, skipping both my one hour of interesting class and my one hour of I-have-no-idea-what-it's-like-anymore-because-I-haven't-been-since-this-particular-prof's-first-lecture class. Now I'm working up the bother to actually get to campus and do some of that studying thing, though part of me just wants to sit and hit Refresh over and over again until my immuno grade gets posted.

But back to SGA. Things I like - working at events (much more fun than attending them, really), knowing what's going on on campus, being able to bring up topics of issue at meetings and see results happen (well, sometimes). And at least some of the people in the club.

Things I don't like - dealing with the other people on SGA (well, some of them). Long, pointless meetings where nothing really gets accomplished. Not actually have any power (as a whole) to make any meaningful changes on campus on in administration. Being part of an organization who's primary role is to throw parties (or to enable other clubs to throw parties), whereby students end up giving yet more of their limited money to this island in exchange for enough alcohol to drink until they throw up and fall over (not necessarily in that order). Yes, I understand that charity is a noble thing and that we're all fabulously wealthy by island standards, but don't we already give this island enough? We get fleeced on everything from housing to groceries to arriving and leaving the island. The school gives the island tons of money, and sets up programs (undergrad, nursing) that they subsidize by raising OUR tuition. Half of the blood donations here come from students, and locals use everything from our buses to our laundry facilities to our medical clinic freely. So why is it so important that every club become a "charity organization?" This entire medical program is a charity organization, alight an involuntary one.

So sure, SGA gets students new printers and signs (misspelled) on the buildings. The island gets $50000 of money out of the student's pockets every 6 months. Fair? Not really.

Wow - that turned into a longer rant than I'd expected. Sorry about that - I suspect a big part of it is end-of-term irritation, probably combined with missed sleep. (btw - no, the pizza/sandwiches before meetings doesn't play any part in my SGA membership. They're not good enough to do so). Long story short, I like the club, I hate what the club does. Maybe I should switch to AMSA or something next term instead.

Strange to think that it's been an entire term since last term's angry, rant about SGA. And yet here I am, and I'll be back again next term. Why? I'm actually not quite sure but I suspect the biweekly dinner plays a large role. That and masochism.

Currently, we're voting on the new SGA pres, which I'm sure is a very big deal to the various students of SGU. Or maybe not - tell me honestly - were you even aware that we HAD a president? How about what they do? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'm just happy we only have three candidates this time around, and that they kept their speeches short. No tears yet, but the night's still young. We have, however, had a couple of proclamations of love for the "SGA family," but that's about par for the course.

Oh hey! This is an interesting twist - there's a combination of non-working internet and non-working angel in Bell right now, so we get to vote the old-fashioned way - by lining up and whispering our votes in our faculty advisor's ear. Yup, let's hear it for the quality services provided by good old SGU (not to mention SGA's most excellent problem-solving skills. And yes, that IS what the kids are calling them these days).

Anyway, this meeting keeps going on and on and on. It's the meeting that won't die, no matter how much I want it to. As it is, I'm tired and bored and am going to cut class tomorrow to sleep in. I deserve it, after being stuck here for 3 hours (so far, and more to come).

After being trapped in yet another SGA meeting (this one only first term reps) where I was forced to endure *2 hours* of people complaining that "med school is too hard," (what did you think it was going to be like?) and that "Dr. X was mean to me" (that's because you're a dumbass), I decided to sit down and write out a list of pros and cons for staying on SGA. Here's what I discovered:

Cons
-long, pointless meetings taking up my study time
-having to deal with close-minded idiots who were raised to believe that they're "special," actually believe it, and consequently have a greater-than-usual sense of their own entitlement.
-Having to deal with the kind of people that complain about a mildly-sexist joke in class, "Not because I'm offended, but because I'm worried that other people might be." (have you ever noticed that PC is just another extreme form of close-mindedness?)
-having to pretend I actually believe that the decision over whether or not to approve a new club is worth a half-hour debate
-being forced to doubt my own sanity when somebody cries during their presidential-campaign speech and, instead of scoffing and walking away, people are actually moved ("SGA is more than just a club to me...you're my family...I've laughed with you, cried with you...").
-being so pissed off with the bullshit that surrounds SGA that I have to go to the store and buy pop tarts to make myself feel better...and they don't. (I don't even like pop tarts--I just get the urge to buy them whenever I see them. I think it's the sprinkles)

Pros
-occasional free stuff
-the chance (slim) that I might actually do something worthwhile if I stick around long enough
-CV padding

Can you think of anything I may have missed? I had thought that being an alternate next term would save me from a lot of the nonsense, but now I'm thinking it's just not worth it. There's a good chance that my head just might actually explode if I continue to expose myself to this sort of banality much longer.

I'm trapped in the longest SGA meeting ever. This is ridiculous - we hit 3 hours a few minutes ago. It's even longer than the first meeting of term, when we got to introduce all the new people and voted the chairs for each of the 15 committees (speeches, discussion, broken voting system) . What are we doing, you ask? We're voting our executive committee for next term. That's right - we've been sitting here for 3 hours, listening to people who take this whole thing WAY too seriously try to convince us that they really care about this school and really want to help people. Some of them are twits enough that they probably do - who am I to judge? It just feels like a long masturbation-fest where we're so busy congratulating ourselves on how wonderful we are that no one's noticed yet that the rest of the school wouldn't notice for 6 months if we dissolved, and then only because Sandblast would be even more poorly-organized. Honestly, med-school government is a joke, much like any other school government. It looks decent on CV's, which is the big reason I'm here, but the big reality of things is that we DO NOT make a difference, and no one cares that much if we manage to get signs put on buildings, or add a bus to the schedule, or approve a new obscure club on campus. It's just not that important, in the scheme of things. More realistically, WE'RE not that important. This whole business is shear vanity.

Angry? Hell yes. I could be studying right now. I need to be studying right now. Does anyone really care why you think you'd be the perfect treasurer? No. Stop talking - it's not going to change anyone's opinion of you. Really.