Compromised

There are many words in the English language that have two meanings that have completely different meanings. One such word is "compromised." The good meaning goes like this: Jeffrey and Lauren got into a fight about whether to buy a cat or a dog, but they compromised and bought a dog that meows."

*Just for clarification, we did not buy a meowing dog.

The bad meaning of compromised goes like this: Dear Dental Class of 2012, The secret test ID numbers that we assigned to you at the beginning of your dental education have been compromised. We will need to reassign the numbers, and until that time none of your grades will be able to be posted. Sincerely, Dean of Students."

Yes, one of our teachers (who apparently was unaware of the SECRET status of our test ID numbers) posted a document on a school website with the entire class's names next to their ID numbers. Guess who's not getting a Christmas card this year?

But the story doesn't end there. The dean's office decided to mail us our new secret ID numbers by campus mail. Campus mail isn't often used in dental school, and about 9 times out of 10 I can't figure out how to open my mailbox (embarrassing, I know), so I hadn't checked my box in almost two months. During one of our labs, however, word started to go around that two of our grades had been posted by our new ID numbers, and we needed to get our code from the mailboxes in order to check it.

I was especially nervous about this grade, so I left the lab to go to my mailbox, crossing my fingers all the way in the hopes that this day would be one of the days that I could (with the help of my college and post-grad education) figure out how to unlock my mailbox.

Luck was in my favor and I opened my mailbox on the first try. I quickly walked back to the wall where the grades were posted and looked for my ID number...

There was no 241612. None at all. In fact, the numbers skipped from 241610 to 241616. Cool.

I checked my email to see if I could make sense out of this little issue, and I saw another email from the dean's office. "Dear students: There was a problem with some of the new test ID numbers, some of them were duplicated. Please come to the dean's office to get your new new test ID number."

I finally got my real test ID number and checked my grades (they were good, you can uncross your fingers now!). After that wild goose chase had ended, I decided to open the other letter that I had found in my mailbox...

"Dear Lauren, Thank you so much for your willingness to serve on the Altered Curriculum Committee. Students are appointed to the committee for a 1 year term. You can expect emails from ___ shortly."

I do not know what this committee is. I do not know the person who is supposedly sending me emails about it. I did not sign up for this committee. The letter was dated August 25, 2009, and I have not heard anything about it yet.

But apparently, I am willing to serve.

What a weird day.