Self-Censorship (Part 2)

Part 1 is over there. It may make this post less confusing if you haven't read it yet.

Anyways, there is a reason why I gave the story of me backing up into someone's car. We can acknowledge that it's a bad situation but in the end, everything is good. No one is hurt, my parents aren't sticking my head on a pole, and my Dad even managed to repair the rear bumper to the point where it's barely noticeable.

And look how worried and stressed Theresa got. Imagine how she'd react to something really bad.

Which leads us to the story how I was accused of plagiarism. And why I waited so long to make a post about it.

Suspicious...

This event took place back in April, slightly after all my papers were due. Anyone else remember what fun I had during that month? The sleepless nights, the constant work, the threat of final exams looming after the papers were handed in.

Anyways, one of those papers apparently resembled the paper of another student. We both helped each other a great deal because there was one section where I had great difficulty in, but she found easy and vice versa. We helped one another out, she finished before I did and so I helped out a bit more by editing her paper.

But our papers resembled each other too much. And thus our prof had an appointment with us to discuss this strange occurance. This happened in around mid-May.

And before I continue, I want to mention, no, I did not plagiarize.

Nope.

Plagiarism is not to be taken lightly. Anything from getting zero on the assignment, to failing to course, to being suspending from the University or even being expelled from the University is possible. None of these options were acceptable to me because I was convinced I was innocent.

And I made sure to share these thoughts with my professor and I thought I did a fairly good job of it.

And then a few weeks later, I get an email from the Associate Dean. He wanted to have an appointment with me as well.

Guess I didn't do a good enough job convincing my Prof.

Finally, my appointment arrives, early June. I had made a mental checklist of everything I had said, and tried to make it more compelling. The Dean would get the final say in whether I was found guilty or not and I needed to prove my innocence.

However, during the meeting, it felt as if the Dean thought I was already guilty of plagiarism. You guys know what I'm talking about, that feeling you get when you're trying to argue with someone but you can tell that their mind is already set. The Dean also showed me a letter that my prof. had sent. Apparently she felt I deserved a zero on the essay.

Yeah, I guess I did a really crappy job of convincing her of my innocence. And the way things were looking, I failed to convince the Dean as well.

Pretty accurate as to how I felt.

As I left his office, I was told that I would be informed of his decision in another few weeks. And if I was found guilty, my last hope would be to file for an appeal. This was not looking good for me. And so I did the last thing I thought I could possibly do.

I wrote.

Well, more accurately, I typed up an email with all my old arguments, additional arguments, rebuttals to his arguments and sent it to him a few days after the appointment. We're talking over 700 words in less than an hour in one sitting. It's another one of the few talents that I possess, being able to write immense and articulate amounts in a short period of time.

Years of training (I thank my English and History teachers) have taught me how to write a lot with little time and prompt. To be honest, that's how most of blog posts get done. An idea pops into my head and boom, I have it all mentally written. All that needs to be done is to type it.

Within less than 24 hours, the dean replies to my email. I had been acquitted of all charges. This happened last week.

WHOO.

And now you can see why I didn't share this Theresa back in April or discuss it on my blog. 2 months of panicking and anxiety attacks. She would have been worrying during her exams, during her Pharmacy rotation, during her trip to China and everything in-between. I'm not saying I didn't worry but I hide my concerns well enough that no one caught on. Calm while under fire.

Some of you like Fang wondered why I'm sharing this now. It's simple, the issue was resolved, everything is good now, Theresa has no reason to panic and if she does, it's going to be greatly reduced.

And on that note, that means any major problem I encounter is not going to be shared until I've personally resolved it or it kills me. This can range medical to academic to personal problems. I simply can't afford to have Theresa going through any more anxiety attacks caused by me. I've caused enough over the time we've dated.

Oh and on that note, Darling, remember how you were concerned about me getting ticketed for parking in that spot? I did get a parking ticket, but I successfully talked my way out of it. Everything is good now. :)

(And yes this post is late. My internet died and I had to resort to stealing my neighbor's...)