On Intolerance.

Today, I asked  a professor of mine whether or not I could leave class early to go to the hospital to visit a friend and she replied with a blunt, "Ikaw bahala."


What difference would it make, she asked, if you waited a couple of minutes to finish class? And at once, I thought of all the human traffic I would encounter on the train--people pushing and shoving to get on the cart, the long, long lines at the ticket booths and I looked at her, picked my things up and walked out of her office. Somehow, when someone replies to your explanation about why you want to leave early for class--knowing that you could've just cut class--with something like "Ikaw bahala" which seems appended with the invisible "but you're fucked if you do.", it seems futile to try and explain.

I understand that it must be tough teaching and all that but is that really the way you must respond to requests like that? I would've been fine with "You could, but I'm not giving you permission to, if you do [insert consequence here]." or even a "No." Hay. But just the apathy and sort of presumptuous way that the answer was stated really, really upset me.

I wonder if I'm upset too easily. Hay. Anyway.