In the fall of 2018, Bratty McBratFace officially began her post-bac program.  Her program would have her completing a core curriculum comprised of required pre-requisites for a med school application, and would take until the end of the following summer to complete (so a year-long program in other words).  Bratty called SO after she settled into her room.  Bratty was now a ‘graduate student’ (even though all her classes were undergraduate-level) and she was going to be very focused on studies.  No more clubs or other distractions.  Bratty was really going to hunker down and crack the books.

About three weeks into her program, she called SO complaining.  The classes were really hard.  She wasn’t grasping Physics at all and decided to drop it.  She was getting depressed because she wasn’t getting the grades that she was expecting.  SO gave her some encouragement and Bratty soldiered on.  SO told me about the call later.

As soon as he mentioned Bratty dropped Physics I pretty much knew the rest of the semester would go poorly for Bratty.  I didn’t say this to SO but simply listened and told him I hoped things improved for Bratty.  Unfortunately my prediction was correct and Bratty had a poor semester.  Not failing poor, but she ended up with B’s and C’s in her classes – not quite competitive for med schools applications.

Bratty also decided she wanted to be a volunteer EMT for the university campus.  The university had a training program that was free and Bratty reasoned this be very good experience for her to include on her med school applications.  She also thought once she finished her post-bac that she could volunteer as a live-in EMT at a fire station and score free housing.  Sounds fine except Bratty would not exactly a confident driver of a regular passenger car, so I couldn’t really see her in the front seat of any ambulance that she’d have to drive.  And since it takes Bratty 20 tries to park straight the poor patient would be stuck in limbo.

At any rate, Bratty proceeded to make her application for the program.  She was scheduled for an interview process which she thought went well, however they ultimately rejected her for the program.  Bratty inquired via email as to why she wasn’t accepted and the coordinator responded that while most of her interview had gone well, the interview panel session had not.  The panelists remarked that Bratty had been rude Bratty tried to file a discrimination complaint with the university but nothing ever came of it – I’m guessing because they rejected her based on her attitude / inappropriate communication and nothing to do with her gender.

At any rate, Bratty was having a tough time.  As the semester rolled on and the holidays were approaching, I asked SO if he wanted to invite Bratty to our home for Thanksgiving.  We were planning on staying home anyway (just two of us) so no issues with having her spend a few days with us at all.  SO asked Bratty and she said she’d like that, and made her travel arrangements.  I had hoped that Thanksgiving would be nice mental break for Bratty and had hoped that would be a template for future holidays that Bratty could spend with us. 

Unfortunately there was more drama, and that Thanksgiving in my mind marked the beginning of the end.  Everything from there went steadily downhill so in the next installment we’ll look at the holiday drama that was instigated by Bratty’s random vegan-ness.