Badassery Magazine December 2017 Issue 19 | Page 9

I
’m finishing up my last
semester in grad school – a
Master of Science in Mer-
chandising/Business Develop-
ment. It’s been overwhelming.
With being a single mom of three
kids (who are with me 98% of the
time), building an entrepreneur-
ial business which means clients
calls and emails all day, and
classes. Papers. Projects. Tests.
Readings and research. Plus all
the kids’ things: their school-
work, projects, activities, med-
ical/dental/eye/therapist… I’ve
been clinging to a scrap of drift-
wood trying to not go under the
waves while choking on foaming
sea water that stings my eyes.
O ne particular class is so far
outside my strengths as far as
topic and what I’m supposed to
do – besides being more work
than any three classes I’ve taken
combined – and I had a research
paper to do on Under Armour.
I’m not athletic, and I don’t buy
athletic wear, and so requiring
me to write a paper on an indus-
try I do not patronize nor value
personally, to mandate a level of
interest enough to write an irenic
paper…it was a struggle. I found
aspects to connect with, and I
was really proud of the paper I
turned in, having worked my ass
off for it.
as a culminating experience in
order to prove I earned my de-
gree. Two positive comments (in
22 pages of writing), and all the
rest said I “missed the point”.
Her contention? The premise
was an analysis of UA’s strategy
using 5 industry trends with a
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threat) assess-
ment, and future recommenda-
tions. She intended for me to use
numbers: profit margins and shit.
I hate numbers and math. My
approach targeted the problem
by looking at the entrepreneurial
venture strategy (because this is
how he got started, which laid
a foundation for making sug-
gestions – at least in my mind;
further, as an entrepreneur it’s
natural for me to connect on this
level) as well as head-to-head
product/service analysis with his
biggest competitors (Nike and
Adidas), and a cognitive/behav-
ioral analysis of decision-mak-
ing skills. Because these are my
strengths, because I’m really
fucking educated on these topics
and expert at discussing them.
And then I got my feedback and
grade. I’m offended. So I pushed back: I’d like to
hear what you think I did well,
I wrote, what you liked, because
right now I’m rather demoral-
ized. Translation: why the fuck
did you give me an A and tell me
it’s well-written if you obviously
hate it?
I’m confident enough in my
writing abilities that I was not
surprised to receive an A and
assessment of “well-written”. But
then I finally read her comments
– which only bother me because
I have to resubmit the whole
fucking paper to my committee In editing…okay, it needs some
refining. However, it’s a really
good fucking paper. Solid damn
analysis and literature review.
I answered the question – just
from an outside-the-box angle.
Typically I’m lauded by pro-
fessors who are in awe for my
ability to approach the problem
by presenting a valid and sub-
stantial point of view that no
one else saw. This one…seemed
almost perplexed: why would you
approach it that way?
I’m struggling with this because,
as a culminating experience,
shouldn’t I get to decide what
was meaningful to me? How to
apply things to my real-world
professional endeavors? Isn’t
the point of higher education
to teach critical thinking skills
such that the student (me) can
then take the concepts and apply
them as needed, tweaking where
necessary? Because let’s be real:
since when did classroom tech-
niques translate directly with
no alteration whatsoever onto a
real-world scenario? If it does,
it’s a unicorn.
I’m not rewriting this entire
paper. It’s solid research and
well-founded arguments. I ana-
lyzed the business strategy in a
way that is meaningful to me and
that permits me to operate in my
strengths, while still answering
the research question. I’m de-
fending this paper, and I think
for resubmission, I will write a
personal statement explicating
my point of view, why the angle I
took is valid – and why it’s appli-
cable to me.
I’m very much into learning
about my personality, my incli-
nations, operating from a strong
foundation of my strengths such
that I’m not recreating the wheel
every time. I don’t have time or
energy for that shit anymore.
But I know myself, really well at
this point, and part of what I’ve
learned is to stand on myself. To
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