Down with The Man!

My brothers and sisters, today I would like to speak to you about one of the great injustices of the world! Indeed, a display of the tyrannical power of The Man over the little people of this earth! My brothers and sisters, I'm going to tell you a tale of encroachment, maltreatment, debasement, and just good, old-fashioned wrongdoing. Now, don't be misled. I'm not speaking of the evils of the past. I'm not speaking of slavery, persecution, concentration camps, or prejudice. Indeed, one could say that this dwarfs those other issues! I am speaking of the fact that I am going to be getting a C in my cooking class! Allow me to explain.

As many of you know, this has been a semester plagued with illness. I've had H1N1, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, laryngitis, and many weeks of the aftermath. This, inevitably, has caused me to miss several days -- indeed weeks -- of class. I even have a doctor's notice asking teachers to allow me to make up what was missed and excusing me from several class periods. For the most part, my teachers have bent over backward to help me catch up. They've excused late assignments, dropped quizzes, and made every effort to help me catch up. To them I am most eternally grateful for their help, generosity, and patience.

There is one class however that has been enormously less helpful: Food Preparation in the Home 1. Now, as someone that is known for being rather savvy in a kitchen -- indeed, someone who knows their way around cooking -- this could be considered one of the great abominations. I'm sure some of these question might enter your mind: How could you possibly get a C in such a simple class? I mean, was it the boiling water class? Or maybe the How to cut Dough with a

Pastry Cutter Lab? Perhaps it was the incredibly challenging task of peeling potatoes that did you in. It must have at least been the cleaning checks that caused such a commotion?

To all your questions, I say no. It was no such thing. Rather, it was because I wasn't allowed to make-up the classes that I missed due to illness. Of all the things. No doctor's notice, no pleading, no explaining was enough to soften the cruel, cold hearts of these people. Their extreme jealousy of my very apparent culinary talents caused them to encroach upon my rights to make up work as an ill student. This maltreatment was simply a form of debasement used for, like I said, good old-fashioned wrongdoing. Well, my brothers and sisters, am I going to allow it? Am I going to sit idly by as they try to destroy me? Will I allow The Man to treat me in a less than decent manner? Am I going to to take my grade and cower at their delusions of grandeur? Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, I...basically am...yes sir. There ain't a whole lot I can do about it, besides email the teacher with my displeasure, which I've done. But, other than that, I basically am just gonna have to take what they give me. Sad day, I know. But, it's times like this that a good, standard Lee-ism comes to mind: Such is life!