#how could they not wonder why they hadn't had to pay the trip fee yet?!

[bluemoonrabbit]

My team is really great 🥹

There has been an unexpected issue this week where an "I'm new and don't know what I don't know" moment resulted in students not being alerted of a fee until it was time to pay. To be clear, we did email them a reminder months in advance, and the fee and its due date are listed in multiple places they know about, they just didn't get the extra "okay, payments are open now" alert.

I didn't think it was a huge deal, and since I'm the face of the team, I wrote to the students explaining the situation and making it sound like fully my mistake. I was happy to take the blame assuming the students would be aware of the fee thanks to the other reminders, and at most be mildly inconvenienced. Well, the students blew UP– apparently they forgot all the other reminders, didn't budget for the fee, and now they're in a pickle. Their level of not-coolness was frankly shocking and I felt both terrible for them, and like they were being unfair– but I also didn't know how to defend myself or fix things without sounding, well, defensive.

I said that last bit to my team, and they immediately circled the wagons. They recognized that this is not a me mistake, but that I had become the target of the students' ire anyway. They helped me come up with a solution and fully understood that fixing my reputation with the students is a priority. They even validated me being a frustration-crier, something I've always been ashamed of as unprofessional.

I still feel both sorry for and mad at the students, but feel so good about my team right now.