The Last of Us? All of My Friends Dropped the Class

Upon entering my 11:20 class, BIOMS 2210: Introduction to Infectious Disease, I was immediately met with a chilling sensation. Something was wrong. Though I had arrived only two minutes before the lecture was to begin, the typically crowded lecture hall remained largely empty. I scanned the seats for my friends but found none. Deep in thought, I took a seat in the back corner.

Had class been canceled? No, that couldn’t be; the professor was already staging by the podium. The weather wasn’t nearly nice or shitty enough to justify skipping. Still, the professor appeared unperturbed, even as the nominal start time came and went while precious few stragglers—all strangers—snuck in. What was going on?

I would not have to wait long for an answer. After a brief remark on the newfound roominess of the lecture hall, the professor switched to a slide that made everything immediately, horrifyingly clear: the prelim grade distribution. I gasped as the pieces fell into place: the conversations about the exam’s difficulty; the griping about the long lay-off between the test and the release of grades; and, above all, the sickening left-skewed histogram sneering at me from the projected screen.

My friends had gotten their grades last night. They were on the left side of that chart. They dropped the class. They dropped the class. And I… I never checked my email. But there was no use now: the drop deadline had passed. My fate was sealed.

I stifled a sob. How was I to survive alone, more exposed than ever? I would have to make new friends, to become inured to the awkwardness of chatting with strangers. Brian—God, Brian, how I hope he’s in a better place now—mentioned knowing “some chick who sits over there.” Perhaps I could seek her out, unless she also…

I sighed, shaking off those morbid thoughts. It was a new world, and I was determined to survive, to rage against the hellscape in which I found myself. I would persevere, against all odds, and emerge triumphant (or at least with a grade above a D). The road would not be easy, but the human will has faced far worse and lived to tell the tale. I will live to tell the tale (to future prospective enrollees on RateMyProfessor).

Or I could take a W on my transcript. Yeah, that might be better in the long run.

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