Authors note: OK, so this is my second attempt. Not sure about this one thought. It's a little different.
Special thanks to Ebony10 for being my beta, thanks.
The words in italics are the thoughts.
She couldn't believe she was doing this. She couldn't believe that she willingly signed up for this class. She knew that she had to do continued learning, but the description of this class is completely different than what they were currently doing in it. The name of the class was Human Relations; it was a business course offered through the local university. It had been on the list of classes that could be taken to fulfill the continued education required by CBI. She thought that it would be a class about how to better relate to people.
What it was turning out to be was a glorified psychology class. They had been spending the entire class doing self reflections and trying to learn about themselves. Apparently knowing where you were and where you were going was supposed to help you be a better manager and be able to deal better with people.
She should have been suspicious the first night of class when the professor said that he was trained as a psychologist, and so the class would be taught that way. She had always thought that psychology was about looking at other people and telling them what was wrong, not looking at yourself and seeing what was wrong.
Here she was sitting at home with her laptop, trying to work up the desire to do the homework. The class was only once a week, on Monday nights, but that didn't mean that she hadn't put off three chapters worth of homework until the night before it was due. She didn't even have a good excuse; they hadn't had a big case or anything during this past week.
Oh well, she had already paid for the course, and she only got the credit if she actually finished and passed. I can't believe I have to do this. She pulled the book towards her and read the assignment:
"Visualizing your life can give it a new purpose and meaning. 1. Think about your ideal financial situation. Where do you live, what type of car do you drive, what are your investments like? 2. Visualize the ideal job. What are you doing, what is your compensation? 3. Look at your personal life. (MY personal life? Whatever.) Who are you with, are you close to your family? Write about each topic, 2-3 pages."
How am I supposed to get two to three pages on that? I suppose I could mess with the margins and font size. And there's always double spacing. She smiled and began to type:
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I would live in a modest house with a house keeper so that I never have to wash dishes. I would drive a fast car, never break the speed limit, and never let Jane drive it because it would drive him crazy. (Hmm, better not put in that last part, the teacher doesn't need to know that). I would have investments in every snack food company in the world and every fast food restaurant as well. (No need to tell him that there is no way they would ever fail the way Rigsby eats.) In addition to this I would own hotels in all of the little hell hole towns from here to Nebraska so that we always have a half way decent place to stay when we are on a case. (Maybe I'll just say that I would invest in real estate, might not seem so odd.)
I want to be the first female president, if I can ever make it through the day with out being disobeyed by a bunch of men acting like pre-adolescent boys (Maybe that's a bit harsh, I'll delete that and start over.) I would like to be the head agent in the field. I'm senior agent already, but head agent would be as high as I could move and still be out in the field. No way would I ever take a desk job—way too boring and way too much stress. I don't care how much money they pay me. I would never sit behind a desk all day. Well, they could give me other compensation: I work with this really hot guy, curly blond hair, blue eyes, killer smile…(Ok, defiantly way too much information, and where the hell did that come from? I need to pay more attention to what I'm writing, too much free association going on. I'll have to delete that last part.)
I would like to be able to take more time off to visit my nieces and nephews, or maybe have them come to visit me when they get older. (I wonder if the teacher will notice that I didn't mention visiting my brother). I'm sure they would love to see the capital of the great state of California. (I'm sure they would probably leave the second they realized that the nearest beach is in San Francisco and that Sacramento is in the Valley, which means no spectacular mountains a stones throw away.) I think that I might want to be married, if the right man ever just opened his eyes and looked at me! (Umm, I mean…) if the right man ever came along. I would love children if it didn't feel like I was always around them (I think I might have already said that, better change it.) I would love children, just one or two, of course it will never happen if it doesn't happen soon. (As I'm sure the teacher really needs to know. Let's try again.)I would love to have children, just one or two, but if it never happens that's ok to. That's why I love being an aunt. If the kids start to get on my nerves, I can give them back (What? It's the truth...ok, I'll take the last part off.)
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She looked at the paper that had just printed off, trying to look objectively at the finished product. The margins were just 1 and ½ inches, and the font was 14 point, but in Times New Roman, so it was not to big of a font to begin with. She had been able to just get over a page and a half. She was so glad that she was only doing this for the continuing education requirement. She only had to get a "C" or better to get the credit for it and it was one less seminar or class she would have to take later this year.
Maybe next time she would just stick to weekend seminars and one week power courses for her continuing education. This class was providing way too many opportunities for reflection and looking at her life, and she was sometimes surprised at what she found. It made her blush, and she hated that, even when she was by herself and no one could see. It didn't matter, she still hated it.
Oh well, the class only has three and a half months to go. She would survive somehow.
Authors Note:OK, so what do you think? Had a coment that it lacked a climax, but I couldn;t really think of one. If any one has any sugestions, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
I figured that teachers, lawyers, and doctors have to do continuing education, so why not law enforcement? This assignment is similar to one I am actually doing for a class very similar to the one described (I wrote this story while avoiding doing the assignment). If any one wants to know the book it came out of let me know and I will tell you.