Let's face the truth; we are all going to have a bad professor in college. And I mean the ones everyone does not like them, everyone is struggling to understand their methods (if they even have one at all), and makes you feel totally stupid and lazy. Yup, that's what I am facing now. Don't get me wrong, I love school and I have had great relationships with all my teachers in the past, but this one is so frightening I don't even know where to begin. Yet we all have stories to tell about them.

I guess I should start with the name of the class, "Critical Writing about Literature." I should have known from the title that it was going to go downhill quick. But I walked in on the first day excited and thrilled to learn what all that meant and how it would help me reach my degree and 'higher understanding.' I'll refrain from speaking his actual name, so how about Dr. Meadow-muffin (it's better than saying the 'S' word).

Anyways, he walks in, tight burgundy pants, high top Vans, and a too-small black button-up shirt, and he starts by reading a poem none of us have heard of before. Then he asks what do people typically do on the first day of class. We all respond with "we go over the syllabus," so this prompts him to drop the syllabus (which he has not given us yet) on the ground and walks over it.

"There! I have gone over it," he tells us with a huge smile on his face. We all laugh and continue with class, which involved him asking us questions and an awkward silence until someone finally blurts out something. Now, this awkward silence could go on for long periods of time with no encouragement or help from Dr. Meadow-muffin.

And when someone finally says something, he makes fun of them for their answer, but when the student tries to explain their meaning behind their response Dr. Meadow-muffin talks over them with sarcastic comments. Leading the rest of us to feel pity and guilt on the brave student who tried to compile to Dr. Meadow-muffin's request of 'participation grade.' This is how every every class turns out to be. While he puts exactly everything we say on the board and never gives us straight answers. And forget trying to take notes because he will yell that 'that's not how you learn.' (Please explain to me how then.. no? Alright.)

This class feels like a discrimination on students' efforts to succeed. Everyone in the class is making C's on his really difficult writing prompts, which always ends with just the word "Evaluate," but later he makes fun of how we only 'reported' about the novel or poem we read and did not evaluate what was actually being read.

So what the heck are we suppose to write? Your guess is better than ours, because we still haven't figured out what he is looking for. His perfectionist tendencies only aids in our insecurity about our true abilities, making me become motivated mainly by trying to avoid looking dumb in discussions. I am not alone in these feelings either, all his ratings on apps are typically scary and sad.

But I am not going to name excuses that we all may have, which could suggest learned helplessness, self-handicapping, or emotional problems that produce from classes like this. However, I would like to mention how dealing with an economically disadvantaged background and being the first person in my entire family to attend college, I would say I am overcoming tremendous odds against me, and this class is not going to be the end of me either.

The moral of the story is, no matter how crazily terrible your professor may seem, just let it push you, never give up on that strive for whatever degree you are seeking. There are always going to be Dr. Meadow-muffins in the world, who may have forgotten what it is like to struggle in college, or who love watching us suffer. But at the end of the semester, prove them wrong about what you can do and what you can put up with.