Difficult week

 This has by far been one of my toughest weeks here. Throughout my lifetime I have been discriminated against because of where I have lived, type of religion practiced in my home, cohabitating, being a survivor of a crime, gender and my age. It never gets easier.

The program I am in has been in classes with the same six other students for the entire program. In the beginning, I felt welcomed. I have felt things have shifted over the last few weeks. I left like they were getting closer. I assumed it was because they all knew each other from undergrad.

We have all been told from the beginning that we should form study groups and collaborate and work together. No one mentioned anything, so I assumed they didn't want to do it. This week, I learned that they just didn't want to include me.

On Thursday, our entire cohort received an email about cheating. During Thursday's class, I was accused of turning them in because they had formed a study group and were doing the individual quizzes together. They wanted to know how I found out. I didn't know until they told me. If I had known I would have turned them in for cheating. They will be punished for their cheating.

It is hard to accept being discriminated against because of your age, but they are young people who are missing out on working with a 4.0 student who has a wealth of information to share. I want nothing more to do with them. Monday is going to be difficult, but I can keep my mouth shut, except for answering the professors questions in class.

It isn't the first time I have been discriminated against. A little over a year ago, I was punished for going to the doctor during company hours. While a man did the same thing and he wasn't punished. We both had time off we could use. I reported it to HR and the supervisor remains in charge.

Each time, I experience discrimination, it never gets easier. I just hope that someday, we all learn to accept each other's differences.