Last Wednesday, I had an appointment with disability services at UPJ at 3:00 to discuss any adaptations that would need to be made.
When I got there, the person I was meeting had left supposedly for a few minutes, so we had to wait for a bit. The girl that was there, though, I actually knew from high school. Well, I remember seeing her the most from elementary school, when she was in several plays, but I saw her from time to time throughout the rest of school. I recognized her voice nearly immediately, or after she said “I don’t know if you remember me….” That was pretty cool.
Well it turns out this person I was meeting with (we’ll call her T) had forgotten about our meeting, so this girl went and found her after about 25 minutes.
T was really nice. I remember feeling at Duquesne like I was almost being an inconvenience to special student services, but at UPJ they were just so nice and willing to help. We went through everything, including housing, classes, testing, and so on.
I mentioned I had been upset about not being able to live in the Delta Chi house, and was a bit nervous about the LLC.
One of the things I was nervous about was the bathroom. The first semester at Duquesne, I was just in a regular room in the dorm, and the bathroom was shared by the entire hall. I was so anxious about walking to the bathroom,e specially when I was wearing a bath robe before showering, because I didn’t know anyone there, and they were all upper-classmen. I didn’t want to have to go through that again.
That’s when T gave me just about the best news I could have hoped for. She said the rooms in the LLC have private bathrooms! That was incredibly exciting. No having to worry if people are in the bathroom or not, or in the hall going towards the bathroom. It is a great relief.
Beyond that, everything else sounds great, too. They have resources for testing, for finding someone to read the tests and transcribe my answers.
I felt a lot more comfortable after that, especially about living on campus. I just wasn’t so sure about if I wanted to live there before that, though I knew I was going to have to, since I had no transportation from home.
Now I’ll just have to try to meet people, which admittedly I am not very good at. That’s why I joined Delta Chi at Duquesne, but I’m not sure how I can meet anyone at UPJ. People seem to be in their own little social circles, and I usually can’t just walk up to someone. I did become more outgoing at Duquesne, so perhaps I’ll have to use that.
I just have to call my mobility instructor soon so that she can orient me to the campus and teach me how to get to wherever I need to go. T said she’d like to have this done as soon as possible, so that I become very familiar with it.
Similar Posts:
- Thank God for Helpful People
- Meeting at Duquesne
- Going to Duquesne for Mobility
- Tuition Confusion
- Feeling More Independent
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Tags: adaptation, anxiety, disabilities, mobility, pitt, relief, UPJ
Man, I know I’ve been out of the loop for a little while, but I didn’t realize so much was happening with you. We need to catch up sometime soon – unfortunately, it can’t be tomorrow, I have a very full day. But, let’s make something happen this week.