October 28th, 2005

back-to-back phone calls

I don’t know why I’m calling you. I just picked up the phone and dialed your number. I don’t know why. I’m so stressed out. I want to quit the paper. I don’t know what to do.

D?

Yes, sorry, hi, it’s D.

What on earth is going on? Are you OK? Calm down. What’s wrong?

I don’t know. Everything.

I was the managing editor of my college newspaper my senior year. My job was to be the other half for the editor in chief. I was the copy chief, I dealt with the writers, I rewrote stories, I did layout, I did final edits, etc., etc., etc. And I took a full courseload, worked full time and spent 30 hours a week at an internship.

Needless to say, my last year of college is a bit of a blur—and not for the normal reasons.

One of the things the editor and I did was to groom our sports editor for the following year. He’s a nice guy, mellow though, and we didn’t have a very large staff of writers… we three did the heavy lifting. It was a highly charged, ridiculously stressful year.

D was a sophomore when I was there. Painfully shy and very quiet, she didn’t have many friends and seeing as I was a senior, our paths rarely crossed. But one of my professor friends recommended her to me as a copy editor and said I should try and draw her out of her shell. It turned out that we ended up becoming friends on a trip to Ireland. The girl I went with and the girl she went with knew each other and we all ended up hanging out.

D and I stayed friends, and I convinced her, under much duress, to join the college paper. I prepared the sports editor for how to deal with her (quiet, homeschooled, doesn’t respond to conflict/anger.. etc.) and by all accounts, everything was going well.

Until this past week. There was some sort of massive row where he ended up yelling and she has given him the silent treatment for four days.

I haven’t talked to D for probably two months, while the last I spoke with him was two weeks ago…

In the span of two hours, they’ve both called me about the other and the situation.

He called because he knows that I’m really the only one who he knows who would understand how stressed out he is right now. She called because she wanted advice.

They were both so angry, though, that all they needed was a good rant.

So they ranted and I listened and I think I’m going to have to facilitate a meeting of some sort, because both are stubborn and incredibly pissed.

I thought I’d never have to deal with these problems once I left college.

Sigh.