Of the readings that we were assigned last week, I particularly enjoyed Mark Twain's "Two Little Tales." I suppose the main reason for this was that I found it especially easy to relate to the frustrated protagonist, whose struggles to so much as exchange a few words with the clearly indifferent director-general were all to reminiscent of previous experiences I have had. I'll readily admit that I am impatient and associate delay with incompetence, and because of this often find myself feeling surrounded by director-generals. But there is a particular instance that this story brought to mind, as at my story's beginning I indeed was the frustrated protagonist and by the its had used the very old and very wise man's advice to my advantage.
My freshman year roommate (who is happily still one of my closest friends) is involved in a program on campus that is based on research in the sciences and mathematics. She had moved on campus before me and befriended many members of that program, and as the year went on I too became friends with these people. Through everyday discussions I learned more and more about the program and soon decided that I wanted to get involved.
One feature of this program is a spring semester course for freshmen that consists of lectures led by the professors in charge. I saw this as an opportunity to finally get my foot in the door, until I realized that it was impossible to fit the course into my spring semester schedule. Determined to get involved somehow, I found out the names of the professors in charge from my friends and began sending emails requesting that I might enroll in the class and only attend once a week due to scheduling limitations. Like the man and the director-general, despite my best efforts I did not receive any responses to my emails and the course went on without me.
I was not about to give up so easily though, and upon finding out that the program also included a month-long research course during the summer I was prepared to write them an application they couldn't refuse. I also decided that it might be a good idea correspond consistently with only one of the professors in charge so as to get to know one person well rather than a couple of people barely. I ended up attending one of the spring semester course classes and my friends there actually introduced me to a professor whom I continued to email until the application was posted. Fortunately, this time I was admitted to the program.
It is very possible that there were other factors at work, but it appears that, as an anonymous student, my pleas to enroll in the program weren't very well heard. However, upon being introduced to that professor through mutual acquaintances, I was able to get my message far enough so as to be accepted into the program by its head. Like Jimmy in the old and wise man's parable, my message's course was a relatively simple one once I had charted its route through my social network and sent it on its way.
All's well that ends well, I guess. Now I'm a mentor for the students in the class I had tried to get into previously and still have a decent relationship with that professor who I had corresponded with from the beginning. I will say, though, as a mentor I've noticed more evidence of this "Two Little Tales" phenomenon, as a student in the class who was in my situation had to use their connection to another mentor to succeed where I had failed. In my mind, as I struggle to remember all of the students' names, his clever networking strategy has earned him the nick-name "Jimmy the Chimney-Sweep." Which is a bit counterproductive, actually, as I'm pretty sure his name isn't Jimmy.
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