#i would've accepted but it was way too far away to justify making the drive over there

[nobodybetterlookatme]

As a fellow TA, who does get paid: If they do not pay you, they exploit you. If you work 10+ hour days, they are exploiting you badly.

You do not owe it to future students to work for no pay. Either they pay fairly high tuition and the university should pay you with that, or the institution is funded by the state and they should pay you with that funding. If your department refuses to pay you a decent hourly wage, they do not deserve you.

Wish that were me getting paid 😭 it is a community college tho and not an actual university so maybe things are different idk. And honestly I wouldn't be as upset if I hadn't been told I would be getting paid after a certain amount of time?? Like if they had said it would always be a volunteer position then fine whatever, I just wouldn't have tried so hard and done so much. Like I love being a TA, it beats being out in the field, but at some point the volunteer experience isn't enough, I need a somewhat steady job that pays me 😔

[fantastic-rambles]

Here's a lil input on the discussion about Reki.

I do get what you're saying about "got it" being more of a consideration than a promise(tho i perceived it as more of a promise at first), i don't think that actually matters because the reason behind Reki's behavior isn't Langa breaking his promise(and nor it is him being jealous of Langa's abilities). All of that stems from him losing his sense of self-worth. He was aware of Langa's potential before, and was absolutely ecstatic about it. Also i think he would've been pretty chill if Langa "broke" his promise to him if he wasn't doubting himself so much. Reki making Langa promise him not to skate against Adam is out of pure concern at first. Like, as much as it can be infuriating to the receiving party, if a person thought that doing X would make smb dear to them potentially harm themselves, they sure as hell would do anything to prevent that, even if it's smth that that smb wants. Later tho I believe Reki thought that Langa breaking his promise served as further proof of him not having any worth as a skater, and he's not angry at Langa but rather at himself(him yelling at langa not to apologize to him during their fight) for being so upset with Langa (and at this point wanting him to stick to that promise is sorta Reki's attempt at trying not to get left behind. He thinks that Langa deciding to skate against Adam means that he doesn't need Reki anymore).

As to him avoiding Langa at all cost and breaking his own promise to Miya of not disappearing on him, I also think that that kind of behavior is a given considering how he feels about himself. Interacting with a group of people(especially Langa) phenomenally good at what he himself loves so much but can't be as good at is straight up painful, so naturally he'd try to avoid them as much as possible. He does realize it's a shitty thing to do tho, based on how he ponders about what to say to Langa("how i acted so terribly against him") when he goes to meet him. Him not being able to apologize out loud is another thing lol. But i think Langa at that point already had an idea on what was going on with him, so Reki actually hearing all the truths from him that he himself had forgotten was much more important. That being said im actually pretty satisfied with their reunion :D I just really hope Reki apologizes to Miya later.

Anyway i hope this makes sense at least a bit, cuz Reki's character is written so well too imo. Him eventually breaking despite his happy-go-lucky personality and then finding himself again is GOOD stuff lol :D

So... I’m not opposed to justifying Reki being a jerk as long as you’re not opposed to justifying Adam being an asshole. -blink-

I’ve been trying to keep my content in line with the majority fandom (anti-Adam) argument that problematic behavior is problematic behavior regardless of the reason for it since I don’t want to deal with hater drama for my love of Adam, but that means I’ll look at all the characters with the same critical eye, which is why I can’t gloss over how problematic Shadow is either. But I’m not going to be hypocritical and apply one lens to characters I like and a different one to characters I dislike. (Or at least, as much as I can, I try not to, though I obviously have my own preferences and biases.)

So if we’re gonna talk on the premise that people’s backstories/traumas/mental states are valid reasons for the way that they act, then yes, Reki’s actions are understandable (if extremely obnoxious, to me, because again, I don’t generally like child/teen characters).

Reki obviously loves skating, and from the start, he has an inflated sense of ego, such as when he’s bragging to Langa about how he learned how to do an ollie faster than average. So it’s all the more crushing when he sees how fast Langa picks up skateboarding and when he completely loses against Adam, who didn’t even take him seriously. He legitimately thought that he was a “good” skater, but after Adam shows up, in addition to the appearance of Cherry and Joe, as well as a parade of others including Miya, Shadow, etc., his confidence is entirely shattered. Yeah, he’s probably a bit better than the average skater, but he’s clearly not at the level of the top skaters: Adam doesn’t even remember who he is because he’s so unremarkable. xD

And like any angsty teen who can’t deal with the reality that he’s not special, he lashes out at others and blames them for his failings. And that’s why he ends up being such a jerkass towards Langa and Miya. He is entirely selfish, not caring about what Langa wants, just to try to keep up his feeling of self-importance that’s crashing around him. He’s afraid of losing his new friend: not to injury (though that was part of it, when he first tried to persuade Langa not to race against Adam), but to more skilled competitors, and of being left behind, as you said. In school, at least, it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone else who is really interested in skating, so Langa’s the only one he can really talk to, share videos with, etc. But when he feels that Langa is slipping away and striving for a higher level, he gets jealous and tries to issue an ultimatum “me or Adam” and also tries to guilt-trip/gaslight Langa by accusing him of breaking a promise he never made (imo). And that has the exact opposite effect of driving a wedge between them. Again, highly obnoxious and toxic, but understandable.

And no, he’s definitely jealous that Langa and Miya are better than him. The whole reason he has his whole angsty “go hang out with your cooler friends” thing is because he’s not a top skater, even though he wants to be. And he struggles to accept that he’ll never be at that level, especially when he really did think he was special, so instead of confronting the problem, he chose to run away from it, no matter how much it hurt other people. It’s also not an uncommon reaction for people in general, to avoid things that make them uncomfortable.

But even though I understand all of this, I still don’t like him as a character. I don’t hate him as much as I did pre-episode 10, but he’s still not “likeable” to me because the way the situation was resolved was so superficial. I agree that he probably has the second-most characterization/development after Adam, and I am glad that he’s made up with Langa (and will probably make up with Miya), but he’s just such an... ordinary character. A typical, obnoxious teen who needed a smack in the face with reality more than Cherry. xD

Adam is a far more terrible person, yes, but I enjoy him because he’s entirely open about who he is and owns his actions. He doesn’t apologize for the things that he does--in part because he has no moral compass, at least currently--but also because he is absolutely truthful with himself and with others, at least when it comes to skating.