Are Writing Consultations a Method of Escape?

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Isn’t it interesting the zone we can go into while working with another student? We can be having the most horrible day in the world, but it can all truly be left at the door during a consultation. I have always stressed about bringing my problems to work with me. Life doesn’t seem to go right most of the time, which can drain you and make you a little more difficult to work with than you might be otherwise, and I truly worry about how that can affect my consultations. I find that I am a totally different person during a consultation. I feel alert and focused. I am so tired most of the time, tired enough that I don’t even know how I get any of my homework done, but somehow I managed to feel alert and often pumped during a consultation. Does anyone else feel this way? I will leave a consultation that has gone well feeling extremely feeling motivated to try to work on my own homework or writing, which is so beneficial with when I felt so tired before the consultation that I didn’t even want to take the energy to drive home. Does a consultation have an opposite effect if it goes poorly? I can’t decide if it truly has the opposite effect for me, or if it just leaves me feeling the same way I felt prior to the consultation. How does a consultation in which we shouldn’t get emotionally involved in still manage to affect our emotions so much? There are so many questions about how consultations can affect us, even if we don’t feel affected during the consultation, just after.

Comments

  1. Anonymous4:00 PM

    I know the feelings . . . too well. For me, there's an element of tutoring being "my turf," where I can be in some level of control. My problems and I are not the subject anymore, but my authority (which is based on my experience and knowledge) can move to the forefront. And we get to look at (and manage) someone else's problems for a time. I can definitely see some escapism there.

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