The ones who (almost) push too far

Yesterday, I had an appointment and had to come in late. When I got in, a fellow instructor gave me a "heads up" about someone who's been waiting for me. A former student of the program (from about 3 years ago) was waiting for me for two hours and was a little upset about that. It didn't really bother me, because she was supposed to show up about three weeks ago, and didn't even call to cancel or reschedule.

She needed some help with a PowerPoint project, which I was originally told was for work. I asked her about what she needed, and from there her story was flaky. She told me something about a 12-18 page presentation, her not knowing how to even get started, she can't get any help from the teacher, and then having to wait for me "all morning" (it was more like an hour and a half), blah... blah... blah...

Turns out, she's taking a class somewhere else, and this is only PART of a larger project. Her rush is due to the fact that it was due the next day. Yes, the NEXT DAY. I told her that I couldn't stop to just sit and help her, because I had classes for that afternoon, but that she could sit in for the second class, in which we were starting PowerPoint. She whined about wanting me to sit with her and "help" her (actually she wanted me to sit and do it FOR her) with the assignment. When I mentioned that it was strange that a teacher would give an assignment and not explain how to do it, she said "No, he didn't explain it, and no one can help me." I said "Then there has to be some lab somewhere where you can get help." She replied "Yes, there's a computer lab, but everyone else is doing their thing, I'm the only one who doesn't know how to do this." I told her "There has to be a reason for that, because it can't be that everyone else just magically 'got it' and you didn't. Maybe you missed those classes?" She went off on some tirade about how "they" put her in "that class" that she "didn't even want".

So after offering to let her sit in a PowerPoint basics class, she complained that she "probably wouldn't get much done", and that she needed me to sit with her and "just" help her. Which I couldn't do.

Later she came by about 10 minutes into class, and asked/ complained "You haven't started yet!?" I told her that the students get the first 10 minutes to check their e-mail and practice typing. She said, get this... "Oh! I can't wait ten minutes." Mind you, she's three weeks late for the scheduled appointment to help her, AND this work is due the next day.

"Besides, I've been waiting for you all day." I thought she was joking, but when I looked at her face, SHE WAS SERIOUS! In my head I was saying "HOW DARE YOU!", but I was so shocked, I couldn't help but find this funny. I told her "I don't even know you. I'm doing you a favor. This is an assignment for a class your taking somewhere else. You were supposed to be here THREE WEEKS AGO. You should have asked you teacher for help at that point, if not when you first started. You can't seriously be trying to put this on me? There's a reason why all your classmates know how to do this, you need to talk with your teacher. Besides, even if I cancelled my classes and just sat and did YOUR work, I woudn't have enough time to finish! This is at least ten to fifteen hours of work! You have a presentation to make, a website project, information to research, plus a report! What makes you think I can help you with all that?"

It seemed to be sinking in. Then she says... (while pushing some papers towards me) "Well how am I supposed to explain where this came from?" She had printed some pages of a presentation off the internet along with some pages of the teacher's course companion website. Yes, the teacher had/has a website to help the class. All I could say was "I don't even know where that came from! What is it?" All she kept saying was "How am I supposed to explain where this came from? What am I supposed to say?" Then she left in a huff.

Sometimes, when I think I've seen it all, people can still amaze me.