I’m either not good enough or dead…or both
I’m either not good enough or dead…or both.
I remember decades ago I had a “friend” from high school named Edward. When he was depressed because he liked this girl Ann but she didn’t like him back, I was on the phone with him counselling him and helping him stay calm. When he was in love with his BCIT classmate later on—and I happened to, by pure luck, work with her at Superstore—once again I was always on the phone to calm him down.
But when I got a different job after finishing university, working as an office assistant in a small company as I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a career, Edward disowned me. I happily told him about my new job, and he scoffed and said, “Pffft. You mean you’re a secretary.” I said I wasn’t—not that there was anything wrong with the secretary profession—but Edward kept insisting that I was merely a secretary. That was rude.
I don’t think he reached out anymore. He essentially disowned me and thought that I wasn’t good enough anymore or that I was dead to him.
There was another classmate named Victor. I guess he was raised in his culture to look down on those who are in lower standing in society and in life. I still remember in the final years of high school when the counsellor or someone coming to our class to give us information about the universities we could apply to. When the information about colleges was being given, Victor scoffed in a way that seemed to suggest colleges were beneath him.
Victor was another one who disowned me. I ran into him and his girlfriend while I was taking a Saturday class to get my teaching license. He looked up and saw the small school building where I was a student and scoffed and said something negative about the school. He promised he’d call me. He never did.
Years later, I was in another company. There was a semi-retired woman that I supervised named Valerie. She wanted to look for a new opportunity with BC Hydro and asked me for a reference. I gave her a glowing reference when the hiring department phoned me. She got the job and left our company. We kept in touch. When I eventually left the company because it had become toxic due to the management in place, I reached out to Valerie and said I’d left that company. Valerie never returned my messages even though she’d still exchanged messages while working at her BC Hydro job. It was only after I announced that I had left that company that Valerie stopped communicating.
Likewise, there was a friend named Kori, an older immigrant lady that I had befriended. Kori had told me that she had another friend who said something like, “I only watch blah-blah show on TV.” Kori dumped that friend, thinking that if someone said something like that, it proved to Kori that the person was uneducated and very small-minded, someone not ambitious enough and not willing to improve. So, I should have realized that when I messaged Kori that I had left the job, she would stop contacting me. I didn’t know or realize beforehand. But when Kori stopped communicating, it became clear.
Is this how our society operates?
I’ll say the title again. I’m either not good enough in people’s eyes or dead. Or both.
The WORST sports commentary ever
A few nights ago, I was still up late at night and happened to stumble upon an Australian basketball game online.
It was late night on the West Coast in North America but, with a 17-hour time difference, it was 6pm at the time in Australia.
After watching the first quarter, I regretted tuning in and just turned my device off and went to bed.
In the first quarter, the play-by-play commentator was awful. She literally began each possession with “[insert player’s name] with the ball.” That was very uninspiring, as far as I’m concerned. Literally every possession began with her saying “[player name] with the ball.” Yuck. No variation in her calls whatsoever.
Worse, the colour commentator, maybe a former player but I don’t know, had a two-minute span in which he said the same thing. Midway through the first quarter, on both sides there were players shooting three balls but missing, and I counted at least four times in those two minutes when there were three-ball misses. Every time a player missed, the colour commentator said, “Unlucky!” He literally said “Unlucky!” after each miss — and that was a total of four times in two minutes. “Unlucky!”
That’s awful broadcasting. It’s probably the worst I’ve ever heard.
I don’t know if both of them are former players, but I’m sure that even in Australia, normally the commentary is more varied and exciting than “[player name] with the ball” and “Unlucky!”
Rubbish! I’d say the fans tuning in were the unlucky ones.
The baseball card heroes book
So, when I first started collecting baseball cards, the Score 1991 cards of Otis Nixon and Tom Browning were the first ones I got.
I did not get packs of cards like other kids did. I essentially collected one by one. Among the first ones were Brett Butler (1992 Score), Cory Snyder (1992 Score in Blue Jays uniform), Joe Boever (1992 Score), Arthur Rhodes (1992 Score), Dave Martinez (1992 Score), Brian Holman (1991 Score), and Stan Royer (1992 Score).
I didn’t interview those but got to instead write the stories of Nixon, Browning, Herm Winningham, Casey Candaele, Howard Johnson, Bob MacDonald, Scott Livingstone, Greg A. Harris, Bob Walk, Don Slaught, Steve Buechele, Donn Pall, Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza, Gil Reyes, and Luis Alicea.
The Importance of Trust and Professionalism in Referring Educational Services: A Personal Lesson
As an educational professional (and sometimes tutor) and someone who has worked in several after-school tutoring centres, I’ve had my fair share of experiences—both positive and negative. Recently, I was approached by a group of parents who asked me to recommend a tutoring centre for their high-school kids. At first, I was hesitant. It’s always a tricky situation when you’re asked to recommend something based on your experiences. I didn’t want to make any promises or risk pointing them toward a centre that might not meet their expectations. But after some insistence, I felt I couldn’t avoid the question any longer.
While I’ve worked with several tutoring centres over the years, not all of them stood out for the right reasons. Some had exceptional resources, but poor management. Others were well-organized, but lacked effective communication or a positive atmosphere. As a professional, I knew that making a recommendation meant I needed to consider more than just the surface-level details of these centres. I had to think about my own experiences and the qualities that made those places truly successful.
After reflecting on my options, I decided to refer the parents to a centre in Richmond, even though they didn’t live nearby. You might wonder why I chose this one, given its location. The answer is simple: the management team at this particular centre treated me with respect, paid me on time, and communicated effectively with me at all stages. These were qualities that made my experience there smooth and enjoyable—things that are crucial in creating a positive learning environment for both instructors and students.
On the flip side, I chose not to refer the parents to a couple of other centres I had worked with in the past. While some had decent resources or had management that knew how to charm parents (in their attempt to market their centre’s services), they struggled in key areas of management. Some were notorious for being late with payments to their instructors, which is inconsiderate (and, for some instructors who rely solely on that income, can be a real source of frustration and anxiety*). Others failed to communicate well, for example letting instructors know the class had been cancelled only after they had shown up or scheduling classes without informing the instructor and then blaming the instructor in front of parents, leaving teachers feeling undervalued or left in the dark about important decisions. These issues not only made my job harder, but they also had the potential to negatively affect the students’ experience.
The lesson I learned from this experience is simple: trust and professionalism matter. It’s not enough for a tutoring centre to simply offer a service; the way they treat their staff and maintain their operations has a direct impact on the quality of the educational experience they provide. As an instructor, if I don’t feel valued, I can’t give my best to the students. If communication is lacking, it becomes a barrier to effective teaching. And when payments are delayed, it sends a message that the company doesn’t value its instructors as much as they should.
As someone who has been in the industry for a while, I’ve come to realize that I cannot simply recommend a centre based on what looks good on paper. I have to consider the whole picture—the working conditions, the professionalism of the management, and how the entire system operates. The quality of service is determined by the people running it, not just the resources available.
In the end, I was happy to refer those parents to the Richmond centre, knowing they would receive not just quality tutoring, but a well-managed experience overall. And I hope that in the future, I can continue to provide recommendations that truly reflect the best of what’s out there, ensuring that both students and instructors thrive in a professional and supportive environment.
Lesson learned: Always trust your experience and instincts when making referrals, and never underestimate the power of a supportive, well-organized environment. More specifically, when a business fails to treat its employees with the respect and professionalism they deserve, it doesn’t just affect the employees—it ultimately harms the customers as well. And while it might not be immediately obvious, a lack of respect and poor management will eventually catch up with them. The experience serves as a reminder: always value the people who work for you, because if you don’t, it’ll show in the service you provide.
*There are those centres that choose to pay monthly, and are late in doing so. Those centres do not follow the normal standard of paying every two weeks or even twice a month. So, for tutors relying solely on that income (not me), you can see what the issue would be. I have also heard management say directly, “Oh, I need to pay so-and-so first because we are allowed to e-transfer only a certain amount daily, and I want to pay so-and-so first.” I have never been desperate for money with tutoring centres and have often been paid late, but imagine other instructors needing money right away and being relegated to a lower status.
Staying up for New Zealand play-in basketball…
I regularly rely on others to make my investment picks… but this one was all me. Nobody that I know pays attention to New Zealand basketball. I stayed up to watch and invest in this particular play-in game. The 6th-place 36ers defeated the 5th-place Kings.
k. p. wee 