Another little thought

Maybe I'm getting old and cranky, but a couple times lately when someone (usually, "someone" here = a student but not exclusively) complains about how something "isn't fair" (especially when the something is, in the grand scheme of life, fairly small), I really find myself wanting to say:

"Congratulations. You've learned one of the fundamental rules of adulthood: life isn't fair."

The truth is, like the old bit from Calvin and Hobbes, a lot of us* spend a lot of time complaining about how life isn't "unfair in our favor," when really, truly, it has been, and what we're complaining about is minor.

(*And I include myself in that, sometimes).

But really, learning to accept that sometimes you have to deal with petty stuff that's not how you wish it was (often "unfair" to the average semi-privileged person is really, "I'm not getting what I want").

Oh, I don't deny there's real injustice out there. But being allowed to hand something in way after a deadline has passed, or being given an opportunity for extra credit when the prof has expressly said there won't be, is not "unfairness" in life. (And frankly, given some of the stuff that went down globally last week....well, I'm even less inclined to do anything other than roll my eyes over the claim that it's "unfair" I don't offer extra credit).

If there's genuine injustice, you go out and flip over the moneychangers' tables or something. Or you start trying to help individuals. If you're merely not getting what you want, where what you want is something small and is really you being able to cover for not being responsible before, you learn to deal with the consequences of not finishing stuff on time or something.