Diary of a College Senior

Oct 15 - Nothing according to plan.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

I'm sitting here in the downstairs den as I write this. I'm supposed to be studying for the construction exam for my class this Tuesday, but I keep getting distracted.

Thinking about it, five years of college education has made me feel jaded about school work. I mean it's great for when you don't know what to do with your life. But now there's a billion things I'd rather be doing and school work is not one of them.

Also tutored two people today, A. and T. A. is preparing to write an exam to get into a military position as a paramedic while T. is a young grade 11 girl struggling in her math class.

Before I went to out to tutor this afternoon, dad asked if I could drive Zoe to a Girl Guides event.

"They are selling cookies at the nearby Save-on-Foods." He explained.

'Save-on-Foods?' I thought. 'I know where it is. Right across the bridge over the highway five minutes away from our house.'

Zoe was so excited as she got dressed in her uniform and tie because all her Guide friends will be there. When we got to the Save-on-Foods a few minutes later, she asked if I could walk her into the store with her so she wouldn't be alone.

As we entered the store, immediately we noticed there was something wrong. The entire store was dark and there was not a single light on except for sunlight coming down from the windows on the ceiling. An employee at the entrance told us the power is out, and that the checkout would not work so nobody can buy anything.

Despite the chaos, we still managed to find a little Girl Guide cookie stand. All was good except the older Guides in charge there didn't recognize Zoe.

"Which section of guides are you from, sweetie?" She asked Zoe.

Zoe stammered and said she doesn't remember.

I could feel myself getting impatient because a) - how could Zoe not remember her own section? And b) - I was going to be late for tutoring.

As we stood around and tried to figure it out, I suddenly realized we were at the wrong Save-on-Foods location. Dad had said it's in the Webber neighbourhood and this is the Glastonbury location. I quickly brought Zoe back to the car so we could still go to the right one on time.

By now Zoe was angry at me for driving her to the wrong place. And I was impatient as I drove around because all the roads in these neighbourhoods confusing and I could not find a good way out. (I couldn't use Google maps either, because I am too cheap to pay for a data plan for my phone, so no GPS for me).

After driving around for ten more minutes, and finding a Safeway and a Sobeys but no Save-on-Foods, I decided to give up. I also angrily told Zoe that she has wasted my time.

I ended up taking Zoe to the library where I was meeting A. for his tutoring session. Afterwards, I felt guilty about getting mad at Zoe when it was me who got the location wrong. So I took her to the dollar store and let her have two things she wanted. She got a bag of Cheetos and a tub of Stax chips and then the two of us went home like nothing had happened.