Thanksgiving letter to colleagues

I’m a massage therapist (which is the perfect job for me), and recently got injured (repeated strain injury) and have been out on workers comp for 3 weeks. I’m nowhere near any recovery as my arm is still in constant pain and I can’t do much with it if anything. I’ve been feeling exhausted and wiped out. I haven’t even been able to do any of my basic tasks at home and it’s been frustrating. Part of workers comp was to find me a light duty job since my job can’t accommodate me, and because I have not been deemed total disability, only partial. So they’re having me work 4 days a week (20 hours) at a thrift store ran by volunteers, starting this Friday.
So I do love shopping and I love thrift stores and I love organizing shelves and I feel this will be a good fit for me for this temporary work position. However it’s very different from my usual job and it’s not a job I would ever pick for me due to some of my limitations due to adhd, that my employer isn’t aware of since those limitations don’t affect my job as a massage therapist.
For example… I’m highly sensitive to sounds and smells, I get sensory overload and I can’t go into any stores without headphones to tune out outside noise, otherwise I tend to freak out if I get overwhelmed. I’m also an introvert and socially awkward. I can’t be around too many people or it hurts my brain, and I need a short downtime break every hour to recharge. I also get a little overwhelmed with clutter, despite having a super cluttered home (paradox we all know about).
I love my job as a massage therapist because I work in a very clear, organized, clutter free space, reliable routine, one on one interaction with each client, I get to interact with colleagues but not too much, just enough to get my social interaction needs of the day. I get a little 5 mins break on my own every hour and my shifts are about 5.5 hours long. On my little break I can recharge and also check my phone to write down every random thing I thought about or remembered during my session, that I forget about if I didn’t write down right away.
I’m getting nervous about this job, and what their expectations will be. Changes are really hard for me. I feel like I won’t be able to do much at all. I want to write a letter for the manager to let her know my limitations. I feel like I will be useless. Physical limitations plus my neurodivergent limitations plus I also have times I won’t be able to go due to prior engagements (because they gave me a schedule different from my regular one, without checking if I’m available).
Wish me luck?

Hey guys,
I would appreciate a bit of your time to help me out with my situation.
HR today announced to me verbally that I will receive a termination letter shortly. I am working for them in Germany since April 2022, after I moved from other country working for the same group. In total it’s 10 years, but 2 officially in Germany.
My wife moved with me, we are expecting a baby in mid-June, and my last day should be end of June. She moved in Jan, and does not have any salary or parental leave money.
This company did some nasty things to few other colleagues earlier as well so this is not surprising me. They went to court, both of them, and won.
Anyway, the bad thing is I don’t have legal insurance, and I would like to avoid that, but to have some good deal in place and to shut the door forever.
What would you advise me to do, and which rights I have? If further clarification is needed, feel free to ask in comments.
Thank you everyone for your time.
Cheers!

I worked in schools for a total of 4 years and taught high school English for 1.5. By the time I started as a full classroom teacher, I knew it wasn't the right fit for me. I moved after my first year, then took a 6-month temporary assignment fulfilling a leave. At the end of my 6 months I was asked to stay on because the teacher I was covering chose not to return. I made the tough decision to leave for my own mental health, and 4 months of unemployment ensued as I actively searched for a new career.
During those 4 months I applied to 123 positions and attended 26 interviews at 17 different companies/organizations. Let me say first that I do not wish this job market on anyone. It was relentless. I have previous experience in the nonprofit sector, a master's degree from an ivy league, a restorative justice certification, and had several direct referrals from friends and colleagues, and it still took me several months of full-time searching to get an offer.
I now work as a lobbyist/coalition coordinator at a mission-driven nonprofit that fights for public education funding and reform. It's hybrid and much more my speed, and I make the same as I did teaching. I get to talk to legislators about how unsupported I was as a new teacher, and I get to connect with parents at under-resourced schools and empower them to create change.
I'm also doing 1099 work as a legal assistant and I'm signed up with a tutoring company -- and juggling 3 jobs feels extremely doable compared to teaching. People mean it when they say that we can do anything after surviving this job.
Anyway, I collected data throughout my interview process and thought it would be helpful to share some of the highlights, especially for people in English/History who aren't sure what kind of jobs to apply for.

• I applied for all sorts of positions, but the most common were in the following fields: Curriculum, Training, Nonprofit Management, Social Work, Travel, Fundraising, Higher Education. I looked for job titles like "Program Manager," "Instructional Designer," "Training and Development Manager," "Impact Manager," "Operations Coordinator," etc.
• I was most likely to get interviews in Social Work (3 interviews after 12 applications), then in Nonprofit Management (6 interviews after 28 applications), then Curriculum/Training (3 interviews after 42 applications). I also got 1 interview in Travel and 1 in Fundraising.
• Of the Nonprofit Management jobs I applied for, I was far more likely to get interviews at places that focused on education, after school programing, or youth in some way.
• I was far more likely to get nonprofit interviews than corporate or university. Based on my conversations in interviews, nonprofit leaders are far more likely to understand the breadth of skills that teachers bring to the table.
• I was DESPERATE for a hybrid job -- 75% of my applications were for hybrid or remote positions. Despite this, almost 50% of the jobs I was asked to interview for were for in-person positions.
• I was far more likely to get interviews from applying on Idealist or on the company site directly than applying through Indeed or LinkedIn. As far as I am concerned, Indeed is a complete black hole of fake job postings. Idealist is definitely the most legit of the job posting websites I used, and I was always more likely to get responses from orgs there, even if it was a rejection.
• I live in a HCOL metro area. I made $68k before leaving teaching. The average salary of the 123 jobs I applied to was $65.6k. The average salary of the 17 positions I interviewed for was $53.6k. If I applied for a job that paid under $49k, I was much more likely to get an interview... which felt insulting with my Master's degree.
• I was never invited to an interview that I didn't write a cover letter for. I was surprised because many of my corporate friends said they are completely unnecessary, but I didn't find that to be the case. I used AI to help me optimize my cover letters to the job descriptions and that seemed to help me get interviews.
• Of all of my applications (not just interviews), I was ghosted 60% of the time. 35% of the hiring managers reached out to deny me, and I withdrew my application from 5% of the jobs after interviewing and realizing it wasn't the right fit.

That was a LOT, but hopefully it is helpful to someone getting started on their journey! There is light at the end of the tunnel. I felt hopeless for so long, but I finally feel mentally healthy and cared for at my new position. If you have any questions or want to know more please AMA!

I'm graduating with my PhD in August and have been applying for non-academic/non-faculty research positions. I've only applied to 10 roles so far, so it's very early days, but so far I have only received rejections. I was planning to really ramp up my applications in June/July. My goal is to find a remote position or something local (within an hour commute) and hybrid so that I can remain near my partner.
My advisor connected me with a colleague, who runs a large research team, has ample research funding, and is incredibly well-connected in my research field. The thought was that this colleague might know of someone who is hiring in our geographic region, as the colleague is based in a city close to where I live (~1 hour commute). We had a phone call earlier this week, and it appears that this colleague is interested in hiring me to scale up the research capacity for a community-based health clinic. The colleague asked a ton of questions about my research skills, salary expectations, talked about the advantages and disadvantages of being hired through different organizations (I could be an official employee of the clinic or another, larger organization). I was invited to visit the project site in June to meet the whole team, tour the site, and discuss more about what the job would entail.
All this is to say: this feels too good to be true! This job would allow me to stay where I currently live with my partner. I'd have to commute 2 or 3 days a week, which isn't ideal, but I can make it work. It would be an amazing early career opportunity, where I'd get to hone a ton of research-related skills, like grant writing, community-based research, preparing academic and public-facing research outputs, etc. I think I am feeling a lot of imposter syndrome - why do they want me?! I'm just a fledgling researcher.
In this situation, would you keep applying for jobs? I know the answer is yes, but perhaps I could scale back a bit? Should I keep applying to find something closer to home or remote? I know that the job is not official until I have an official offer letter, but how confident can I be that this will go through? Any words of advice or wisdom are welcome!

This is taken from and is copyright protected by globalsoup.net, a website that promotes flash Fiction with annual writing contests.
I am reprinting these Flash Fiction Prompts because they are outstanding ways to freewrite and offer plenty to work with for those who want to learn how to write Flash Fiction.
So check out these prompts and the article and work some of them into your journal! Post the best responses!
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts - Plus Bonus Prompts!
We’ve put together 100 flash fiction prompts, each one designed for a very short story. These prompts will probably be best suited to a story of between 300-1,000 words. If you want to write a longer story using these prompts, you can easily expand these ideas to fit a story of any length.
What is flash fiction?
Flash Fiction is defined as a very short story that can be anywhere from just a couple of words to about a thousand in length. The beauty (and difficulty) of writing flash fiction lies in trying to tell a complete story in so few words. Great flash fiction is succinct, emotive, thought-provoking, and impactful.
What’s the difference between flash fiction and a short story?
The only difference between flash fiction and a typical short story is the word count. However, this scarcity of words means that writing flash fiction can feel like a completely new skill. Just like the short story is a different animal to the novel or novella; flash fiction is kind of unique.
When writing flash, you’ll need to use fewer characters, a simpler plot, and you’ll have to make each word count. This is why editing is so important. You have to be brutal. Cut out everything superfluous and really make sure each and every word is performing an important function in the story. If you’re interested in writing very short fiction, why not check out drabbles? Drabbles are stories of exactly 100 words in length, and they can be a great way to practice keeping your stories very, very short.
How to plot a flash fiction story
When you sit down to write flash fiction, you must begin by choosing an appropriate plot. You cannot simply use a short story plot and tell it using fewer words. A typical flash fiction plot is like looking at one part of a story under a microscope.
For example, let’s look at prompt #21 in our list of 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat. If you were writing a novel about a sinking ship, you’d probably want the actual sinking to be the climax of the story. Of course, there are infinite ways to write a novel about a sinking ship, but this would structurally be the most obvious. You’d use the first part of the novel to introduce your characters and describe the voyage leading up to the sinking and the sinking of the ship would be the dramatic climax, leaving the last part of the book as the resolution.

The golden rule of writing short stories is to begin as close to end as you can. So, to turn the same story from novel to short story, you’d probably want to begin with the ship sinking. You haven’t got time to introduce the characters before the action begins, so you’d need to feed in exposition and backstory here and there during the events.
All stories need a good climax. So, you would find the most dramatic moment in the story and build up to it. Perhaps your climax would be the two main characters having to decide who will take the remaining seat on the last lifeboat.
Finally, you need a resolution. In a longer short story you do have time to bring in some kind of satisfying resolution at the end.
But, if you’re writing flash fiction and your story is only a few hundred words, you really need to zoom in on one tiny moment in that story.
You don’t have time to tell the entire story of a sinking ship, but you can turn one moment into a story.
We’ve chosen the lifeboat situation as the key moment in this hypothetical story. Two characters must decide which one of them will take the last seat on the last lifeboat. This is an appropriate plot for flash fiction because it’s simple, high-stakes, dramatic, and thought provoking.
Not all flash fiction will have a plot quite this dramatic, but all great flash fiction will have a plot that can be expressed in just one or two sentences.
If you have a plot in mind, but it seems more suitable for a longer story, you can sometimes find several flash fiction plots hidden within it. Just look for little stories within the story, like the lifeboat moment in our hypothetical tale of the sinking ship.
This brings us to our top tip for coming up with ideas for flash fiction stories:
if you’re ever stuck for ideas, you can find little stories within the story in books, movies, and TV shows. A full length feature film might have as many as 20 little incidents in it that could easily be flash fiction.
Don’t directly write a story based on the film, though. Just carefully pick out those little moments, write down what’s happening as a one or two sentence plot, and then use it to inspire your own, completely original flash fiction story.
One of our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts was actually taken from the movie Pulp Fiction!
How to write very short flash fiction
There are several reasons writers might start writing flash fiction. Of course, it could be that they just love and enjoy the form, but sometimes they’ll be a more strategic and practical reason at play.
Perhaps they want to practise the process of writing stories within the confines of a certain word limit. Maybe they are trying to develop a daily writing routine and they don’t have a lot of free time. It could be that they’re trying to break a habit of not finishing writing projects, or perhaps they are entering a flash fiction competition.
Whatever the reason, very often when we sit down to write flash, we must work under an imposed or self-imposed word restraint. We’ve set ourselves (or been set) the task of keeping the story under a particular number of words.
So, how do you plot a flash fiction story when you have to keep your story very, very short.
We’re not going to discuss stories of 100 words or fewer here. Technically, those stories are still flash, however, we prefer to categorise 100 word stories as drabbles and anything under 100 words as micro fiction.
But what if you have to keep your flash fiction story under, let’s say, 300 words? How do you write a flash fiction story that short?
The answer is: get your microscope out again. Remember earlier when we said writing flash fiction is like looking at part of a story under a microscope? If you have to write very short flash fiction, you’ll need to zoom in even further.
Let’s look at a couple of examples from our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to the story, you could have time to tell the story of the entire fight. With only 300 words, it might be better to zoom in on the very moment when the boxer must choose whether or not to go down.
In a longer flash fiction story you might have time to go into detail about why he’s in this situation and why he’s so conflicted. In a 300 word story, you might only devote one or two sentences to his gambling debt and the large sum of money waiting for him if he goes down in the third round, as instructed.

1. A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to this story, you might be able to write about the whole process of choosing what to take and what to leave behind. You might be able to mention many different choices and have the whole family participate in the story. You’d be able to go into some details about certain choices and the stories behind individual objects or mementos, as well as the implications of choosing certain things over others.
With only 300 words, it would be advisable to zoom in on one member of the family and to focus on one profound and important choice.
How to write a flash fiction story
Now you have your mini plot, you still need to make sure your flash fiction feels like a complete story. It should still have a beginning, middle, and an end.
Just like a short story, you may need to bring in a little exposition here and there to give texture, context, backstory, and to bring some depth to the characters. But, unlike a short story, you won’t necessarily need to end with a full, detailed resolution. It’s quite common for a flash fiction story to end with a quick twist or plenty of ambiguity.
Flash Fiction is much more about eliciting emotions and provoking thought, than setting up and resolving a complex story.
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts
A young ballet dancer chooses not to tell the other dancers in her troop about a loose paving stone outside their dance studio.
Two sisters realise they’ve both been on a perfect first date … with the same man.
On the car journey home, two parents realise they’ve left their child’s favourite teddy on a park bench several hours away.
A writer suffering from writers’ block looks for inspiration in a strange place.
Set 200 years in the future, a young man realises he’s too emotionally dependent on his robot assistant.
A young woman discovers she’s taken the wrong suitcase home from the airport. The contents of the case make her question her own life choices.
A murderer realises he has only 10 minutes to dispose of a body.
A child decides to walk home by themselves after their parent forgets to pick them up from school … again.
Your protagonist manages to talk the grim reaper out of collecting their soul.
Your protagonist suddenly realises they’ve been living in a simulation.
A young couple has chosen to spend the night in a haunted house to fix their marriage. Your story starts just as things get very weird.
Your protagonist finds a letter they wrote to themselves when they were a teenager.
Your protagonist must decide whether or not to drink from a fountain that erases all painful memories from the mind.
Your protagonist comes across a street called ‘Memory Lane’. They quickly realise the name is eerily apt.
A bride finds out something startling about her future husband an hour before the wedding.
Your protagonist finds an advertisement for a company that promises everlasting youth.
A youngest sibling shows up at a family reunion they weren’t actually invited to.
Your protagonist finds a piece of paper with a spell on it. If they say the words out loud they aren't sure if something terrible or wonderful will happen.
Your protagonist is watching a jazz band play when they realise they know the drummer from somewhere — but where? It takes a whole song for them to figure it out.
Your protagonist must meet their ex for lunch to tell them they’re now engaged. It’s been just a few weeks since they split up.
Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat.
During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.
Your protagonist must pack their belongings before moving to a new colony on mars.
A pilot realises they have lost control of their aircraft.
Your protagonist doesn’t want to attend their 100th birthday party — and for good reason!
Your protagonist gets stuck in a lift with their ex … 5 minutes after breaking up with them.
A child says goodbye to the fairies in his garden before moving to a new home.
Your protagonist saves someone’s life … and then wishes they hadn’t.
Your protagonist arrives at a blind date. They’ve been set up with someone they actually know a little too well.
Set in a dystopian future in which public displays of affection are banned, your protagonist faces an agonising choice.
An agoraphobic must face their fear in order to save something important.
Your protagonist must make her partner fall out of love with them. Both their lives depend on it.
Your protagonist is hiking with her small children, they come face to face with a grizzly bear and her cubs.
Cinderella and Prince Charming realise they got married too quickly.
A message written in graffiti on a bathroom wall has serious implications for your protagonist.
Your protagonist finds a bag, looks inside, and realises the owner might just be their soulmate.
Your protagonist has been seeing the same stranger everywhere they go for months. They finally decide to confront them.
A couple realise their relationship is over during the trip of a lifetime. They’ve been saving up for the trip for years.
A public debate sees two previously married people letting their private grievances come into their arguments.
Your protagonist plans their escape from a retirement home.
A couple realise their fundamental beliefs are at odds with each other.
An artist develops an obsession with drawing a next-door neighbour.
Your protagonist finds themselves trapped in a cabin with a group of hikers during a heavy snowfall.
An ice skater must face going back on the ice after a dangerous fall.
A couple must decide their plan for New Year’ Eve. They both have secret reasons for their choice.
A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.
Your protagonist is waiting for someone important at the airport. They begin to think that person isn’t going to show up … and then they realise why.
Your protagonist must find their way through a maze. What they find in the middle of the maze is the last thing they were expecting.
An actor waiting in the wings has forgotten his first line.
Your protagonist is wrongly identified as a hero. Do they come clean?
Your protagonist realises their past is catching up with them.
Your protagonist overhears something that has serious implications for them while trying on clothes in a changing room.
Your protagonist is in a costume shop trying to decide what to dress up as for Halloween.
Your protagonist realises they’ve slipped into an alternate dimension.
A surgeon must make an impossible choice on the operating table.
A pregnant journalist interviews the mother of a missing child.
Your protagonist must ask his girlfriend’s father for his blessing, only to discover the father knows his deepest secret.
Your protagonist sees something on social media that will change their life forever.
Two work colleagues realise they’ve been dreaming the same dreams for weeks.
A reluctant daughter comes to terms with having to carry on the family business.
Your protagonist realises she must go on the run.
Two bank robbers disagree on their plan to rob a bank. This leads to a disastrous consequence.
A strange case of deja vous leaves your protagonist convinced of supernatural interference.
A sceptic begins to question their beliefs during a psychic reading.
Your protagonist uncovers a scandal at their workplace.
A hapless cook tries to recreate her late father’s favourite recipes in an effort to feel connected to him.
Your protagonist has a premonition that makes them certain they can’t visit their mother-in-law for Christmas. Now he must convince his husband.
A young backpacker discovers something unexpected in a cave.
An impulsive character and an indecisive character are brought together by chance. They must make an important choice.
Two characters cleaning up after a party discover an object that sheds light on something strange that happened earlier.
Two strangers are trapped together during a blackout.
Your protagonist must take a leap of faith in order to save something important to them.
Your protagonist discovers a huge part of their life has been a lie.
Your protagonist has set up an elaborate way to propose. Inexplicably, everything goes wrong.
Your protagonist must buy a dress for her mother’s funeral.
Your protagonist goes back to her favourite city in the world, only to find it has completely changed.
While stargazing, your protagonist realises the stars are forming secret messages in the sky.
Your protagonist hears a news story on the radio that will mean the world changes forever. However, she seems to be the only person who heard it.
Your protagonist is crossing a frozen lake. They see something under the ice that definitely shouldn’t be there.
A workaholic must come to terms with retirement.
An Olympic athlete must decide whether or not to report their teammate for doping.
A young mother feels isolated from her childless friends.
Your protagonist is about to realise their greatest ambition. Will it be everything they were hoping for?
Onboard a spaceship, a couple prepare to go into stasis for hundreds of years.
Your protagonist has an obsession with thinking about the past.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, your protagonist meets an unlikely love interest.
Your protagonist visits a place from their childhood and realises their memories of that time might not be accurate at all.
A small child has decided to run away from home. Her parents watch on with amusement as she decides what to put in her backpack.
On a whim, a bus driver decides to radically change his route, much to the chagrin of his passengers.
Dystopian. A couple in love are only allowed to spend time with each other one day a year.
A shapeshifter begins to realise their powers are fading. They must decide what form will be the last one they take before they cannot change again.
The devil visits your protagonist with an offer on her soul.
Your protagonist suddenly has the ability to read minds. There’s only one place they want to go now!
Your very wealthy protagonist has designed a simple test to see who will inherit her estate.
An archaeologist discovers something that will change how we see the history of the world. It could be dangerous. Does he keep it to himself?
Your protagonist must clear out their late mother’s house. She discovers an incredible family secret.
Your protagonist is meeting his brother. They haven’t seen each other for 20 years.
Your protagonist develops the ability to see the world literally through someone else’s eyes.
Your protagonist starts to believe their partner might be a spy.
Your protagonist discovers a hidden camera in their living room.
Looking for a flash fiction competition? Check out our ‘Big List of International Writing Competitions!’ Looking for inspiration? Why not check out our list of the 20 Greatest Short Story Writers of All Time! Just received another short story rejection? Here’s our post about ‘How to Deal With Story Rejections’ Bonus Prompts! Two characters waiting by the side of the road realise they are both meeting the same person.
A woman loses her young niece in a busy shopping mall.
Three strangers must solve a riddle in order to gain entry to a secret club.
A poor woman must borrow ingredients from her neighbours to bake her husband a birthday cake.
A waiter finally finds out why an old man has been coming to the restaurant where he works every day at exactly the same time.
Two work colleagues must decide which of them is to take the blame for a terrible mistake at work.
Your disgruntled protagonist goes to confront the couple next door about the strange noises they’ve been hearing at night.
A family dinner party sees three characters make three very surprising announcements.
Two women argue over who should get to buy the last dress available in a store. How do they decide who should get it?
A young couple find out they knew (and disliked) each other vehemently as children.
Love writing stories? Register now for our free 7 Day Story Writing Challenges. Write a short story in a week, get extensive feedback on your entry, and compete for a prize of £500 in each round of the challenge. Register today!
Mastered the art of flash fiction? Now you can try submitting your stories to literary magazines! We’ve compiled a list of the best literary magazines that don’t charge a reading fee! Check out our Big List of No-Fee Literary Magazines.

I have a quick question in regards to summer visits. We are co-parenting my stepson and his mom, who lives out of state, is supposed to have him for the majority of summer. She finally gave us the dates, June 25th to August 16th, but hasn't gotten plane tickets yet and is waiting on her taxes she says. (Note about two months ago she said the IRS mailed her a letter about her taxes and said it'd take 60 days; no idea what it's about, she won't tell us). My question is when is the appropriate time to tell her if she doesn't have tickets by this date then she needs to better plan for next time? Last time she did this was Thanksgiving and her current partner's parents bought the tickets less than a week before, which at that point we kept asking her if she had gotten the tickets and she completely ignored our texts and calls until they got the tickets, so we thought stepson wasn't going.
I know we need to get a lawyer involved, which fiance plans to after summer, he wants to see how summer goes; he's been afraid of loosing custody since the state she lives in is a mom state and has been trying to place nice with her. The only reason we have him now is because she was homeless for a bit couch surfing, and it still took a lot to get him; she turned off stepson's phone for two months. There's also more but we've been trying to obtain legal documents and have everything in place before we serve her.

Not every DO student has below average stats, similarly not every MD student has above average stats.
Getting into a MD program is a privilege given today’s climate in medicine but there are just so many external factors that affect MD admission and it’s NOT purely meritrocrocy based as much as you like to believe it and as much as schools love to advertise.
Just stop - getting into med school in the U.S. is hard - and no belittling others does not make you look better or more prestigious. There is no basis to discriminate someone purely based on their degree.
To my MD colleagues, please consider focusing on individual merits instead of the two letters behind our names.
To future DO students, the stigma is getting better each year and it will only get better. Believe in yourself and lets change the future of our profession.
Edit: I’m not sure why my post is so triggering to some. I had no intention to downplay anyone’s accomplishment. I do realize that it was an Inappropriate reference to race/MD analogy but as a POC myself I did not mean to bash anyone and have removed them from my orignal post.
Frankly I’m a bit shocked the amount of assumptions made in the comments about me and my motivation. Feel free to downvote and assume, i will leave the post here for any future viewers that may experience similar struggles.

Not every DO student has below average stats, similarly not every MD student has above average stats.
Getting into a MD program is a privilege given today’s climate in medicine but there are just so many external factors that affect MD admission and it’s NOT purely meritrocrocy based as much as you like to believe it and as much as schools love to advertise.
Just stop - getting into med school in the U.S. is hard - and no belittling others does not make you look better or more prestigious. There is no basis to discriminate someone purely based on their degree.
To my MD colleagues, please considering focusing on individual merits instead of the two letters behind our names.
To future DO students, the stigma is getting better each year and it will only get better. Believe in yourself and lets change the future of our profession.
Edit: removed the MD/Race reference from my original post. I had no intention to downplay anyone’s accomplishments and should have been more careful with my analogies.

Hi all,
First, this is a long post, and for that I apologize. I have a lot on my mind I’m trying to process right now. I’m also a creative writing minor, so I realize this will come across as a story.
I attend a fairly conservative college where most of the students being Christian. I myself am not religious, and due to the environment I try to keep that fact to myself so as not to be rude or disruptive. Some people do know about my lack of belief, and I’ve had mixed responses from them when they learn. Some want to convert me, others are rather nonchalant about it.
The reason I am writing is because I recently had a conversation with one of my literature professors that has left me wondering how I should respond. The conversation started after I asked him a follow up question to something he mentioned about the Bible: “That it’s the greatest story about the human condition humanity ever told.” For context, he’s been a Catholic his entire life.
My follow up question to him after class was this: “But if it’s just a story, why should we believe it, especially when there seem to be so many contradictions within it?” This tends to be my first question when someone makes a claim about the Bible, and it is born partly out of curiosity (I genuinely want to know why, as no Christian I’ve talked with has given me a good answer to it) and partly as a challenge, as I don’t want to see him wasting his life worshipping something that isn’t true. Perhaps this is not the best motivation, but it is what sparked my question.
He didn’t answer right away, but when he did this is (roughly) what he said: “My favorite story is William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. I think it, while being fictitious, presents a deep understanding of human nature. I read it to understand the characters, and, by understanding them, hopefully learn a little bit more about myself and others in the process. Does it matter if it is true? Depends on what you mean by true. If you mean it in the sense of “this actually happened,” then you will be disappointed by a lot of literature. But if you mean it as “this reveals an important quality of human condition,” then I think it is very true.” He then chuckled and added, “Your question reminds me of a quote one of my professors told me when I was a student: ‘Everything in the Bible is true; some of it actually happened.”
This surprised me, as this is the first time I had really talked with someone who didn’t take the Bible (specifically the creation story) literally. I clarified with him to make sure I understood him correctly, and he affirmed what I said.
I probed him a bit more about that, asking if the fact that it was written by humans makes it less trustworthy. Why should we place so much faith in something that was written by mere men? I figured he would say something like “God wrote the Bible,” as that is what people I know have said.
He paused again and thought. His eventual response was this (if I recall correctly): “I have two reasons for why I believe in the Bible, one reason for believing in God, and one additional reason for why I am Catholic. The first reason for why I believe in the word of the Bible is because I think it is written by God. Unfortunately, that isn’t the most convincing reason even for myself, as why should I believe it is written by God? This leads to my second reason, which is that I simply find the story of the Bible presents to be the most beautiful and brilliant work to ever exist. I have spent years studying the intricacies of the Bible simply because I find its underlying themes and its story of human failure and promise for redemption to be gripping and compelling. Shakespeare doesn’t even come close, in my opinion. If it’s not written by God with human hands, then I don’t know what is. But this still is built upon believing that God exists, so let’s go to why I think that.
"The way I see it, faith is a natural part of human life. It is impossible to find a functional person who doesn’t trust something, and trust is one of the pillars of faith, so similar in fact that I view it as faith. If everything in the world is man-made and artificial, without divine influence, I think at the very least I would still choose to believe in the word of the Bible because I find it the most beautiful thing in the world. A large part of the reason I believe in God is because I think it is natural to have faith in something. If I am going to have faith in something no matter what, I want my faith to be in something beautiful, intellectually rigorous, and good for humanity.
“This leads into my reason for being Catholic, which is in large part it is because I think it presents the most holistic, beautiful, and practical theory for human success. Everything it teaches is geared toward human success, both individually and socially. People might disagree with what the Catholic Church defines as “human success,” but I think the Catholic Church is onto something.”
I asked him to elaborate, and he explained how the Catholic Church (if I understand correctly) places great emphasis on God’s first two commands to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply.” “Multiply,” he explains, “sounds like what it says: make more humans.” This is not to say every male and female should hook up, but rather that we as a society should be concerned about the “continuation of our species.”
This command is to be taken hand in hand with the next one: “Be fruitful.” Making lots of babies isn’t the point--the point is to make lots of “good” humans. What does he mean by ‘good?’ “That,” he shrugs, “is where a lot of people disagree. I myself am not entirely sure how to describe ‘good’ humans, but I’ll try. I could say ‘love’ is the measure of a 'good' human, but even there people disagree with what ‘love’ is. I think love, however, is fundamentally about willing the best for the other, to the point of being willing to lay down your life for that person. An enduring society that produces those types of people is one that I would say is a good society, and I think people who take the ideals of Catholicism seriously and live them out as intended are the most likely to do that.”
I asked him about the abuse that the LGBTQ community has had to endure at the hands of Christians, and how the Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex marriage and calls those people sinners. I also asked about how denying abortion access to women is loving to them. He winces at this, and says this in reply: “A lot of people say and do terrible things in the name of Jesus and 'love.' The Catholic Church’s official teachings do not say we should be cruel to LGBTQ members or to women who have had or want an abortion. Unfortunately, people are people and people are often hypocrites, many without realizing it. When it comes to the LGBTQ community, the Catholic Church does not say ‘being homosexual is a sin,’ it says that homosexuality is a disordered desire. The ‘sin’ comes from acting on that desire, as the Catholic Church holds that all sexual acts should be reserved for the opposite sex as a unitive and potentially procreative act within the security of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. This goes back to “be fruitful and multiply:” Sex is so very pleasurable because it is extremely important for reproduction, which is what all life, in general, tries to do. Since the sexual act has been shown scientifically to significantly rewire the human brain, shouldn’t we try to be as careful as we possibly can be with it and make sure it is used for its intended purpose: to make babies? That is part of the Church’s practical reasoning for why homosexual acts (and extramarital and non-unitive sex) are not to be encouraged or endorsed by the Catholic Church.
"Many Christians, unfortunately, forget the lessons of the Gospel stories of the woman about to stoned and the woman at the well: those two woman were isolated and outcast from their homes for their sexual acts; one of them was about to be killed it. What happens to these women is intended to be viewed as unloving. Jesus, however, befriends them despite them ‘objectively’ sinning. He never endorsed their behavior, but he still treated them with respect and love. Even if people today might argue those women did nothing wrong, the point of those stories is that Jesus considered them ‘sinners’ and yet he loved and befriended them anyway. That is literally what Jesus was doing in every city he went to: Spending time with the people who were considered terrible sinners, not because he agreed with their actions but because they are human and thus deserve to be loved. I think Christians today too often forget that is the core message of the Jesus' teachings: to love one another.
“As for abortion, the Catholic Church’s position on that rests upon our emphasis on the inherent dignity of human life. The Catholic Church believes human life begins at conception. Operating under that view, abortion is murder and should thus be strongly discouraged and/or condemned. Personally, I think it should still remain a decision between a woman and her doctor, as the doctor is the only one with the medical expertise necessary to accurately say when an abortion is actually necessary to save the woman’s life. That, however, is a tragedy, and it is one the Catholic Church acknowledges is an unfortunate situation of ‘abortion is necessary to save a life that would be otherwise lost.’ Doctors need the confidence and ability to make difficult decisions without fear of being punished for it. That means there is a risk of abuse and malpractice, but that is the nature of trust.”
We were running out of time before he had to get to his next class, so I asked him one last question that was on my mind: “Can the existence of God be proved?”
He chuckled at this. “Some of my colleagues will likely disagree with me on this, but I personally don’t put a lot of stock in ‘proofs for God.’ I haven’t found one that convinces me, and I believe in God. I think they do a good job of suggesting God exists, but proving He exists? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s possible to prove God’s existence to someone who doesn’t already believe in God. I think the most we can do is show is why belief in God is not illogical—that’s the role of apologetics. But I can’t say, with absolute certainty, that I am right. That’s part of why it is faith: We might be wrong. If we are wrong, then ‘we are of all people the most pitiable.’” (I had to look this up afterward, as he made it sound like a quote. He was quoting Paul’s letter (1 Cor:15-19) talking about what it means if Christians are wrong about their faith. It seems he was applying this quote to all people of faith who are wrong.)
He gave me an example of what he means by ‘impossible to prove:’ “Think of your paper for this class. You, hopefully, are writing about something that you think is true. You are speculating at what the author meant, at how the author thought, why the author wrote the book or scene the way he or she did, or any works or events that likely influenced the work you are studying. Can you know for certain that you are correct?”
My answer: “No. But I can find evidence for it that shows I probably am.”
His reply: “Exactly. It is the same way with God. I don’t think we can prove God definitely exists the same way you can’t prove, with 100% confidence, that your paper’s thesis is correct. I think there is a lot of evidence that suggests God does exist, but I can’t prove it. Belief in God is inductive, and therefore inherently uncertain. This is how the Catholic Church also understands “Natural Law” and “Moral Law.” We can’t really prove either of them exist, we just have a lot of evidence gathered from observing the world and humanity that we think strongly suggests a natural and moral law. Apologists are the ones in charge of showing how our teachings and beliefs on these subjects are not inconsistent and intellectually bankrupt to hold.
“One last thing, to explain what I mean by ‘lots of evidence for God’s existence.’ Imagine we were to find Van Gogh’s The Starry Night out in the woods. I can’t prove that someone painted it, but I think a strong case can be made that someone did paint it. I might go so far as to argue it is obvious. That’s how I tend to view the world and the universe: one giant painting made by God by means of scientific laws and evolution.”
At this point he had to leave for his next class. He thanked me for the conversation and asked if I was still able to make it to cigars this Friday to celebrate the end of the term. I told him yes, and that I will probably have more questions and that I hope he didn’t mind if I asked him. He said he did not mind.
So that leads me to here: I have never had a conversation with a person of faith like this before. Almost every response he had appealed to an intuition that he seemed fine with not everyone sharing. He's also the first Christian I've met who says he doesn't think God can be proved and doesn't seem bothered by that. I suppose my question for you is: What should I ask him? What should he clarify?

Hello,
I have been working in my role for two years going into my third.
I love my role however money is not enough to survive and I am thinking of giving a letter to my employer for them to consider a wage increase.
I have also been presented an opportunity where there is salary growth every year in the contract in another company, but I am worried I won't love the role. I currently work as an admin în an Embassy.
My question is whether it is appropriate to give this letter and meeting request to the Ambassador himself, I had a small misunderstanding with my colleague who I would usually give this to but I'm worried she will just refuse my request or even show it to the Ambassador for consideration due to this.
If I can I'll link a past post.)
Please can I have some advice I am due for a contract renew meeting in 2 months but if the answer is no for the increase I don't want to lose the good job opportunity I am full of anxiety, thank you.

Hi guys, Firstly thank you in advance for your valuable time & advices.
Background : no assets at all nor father is working now as he recently got treated with by pass surgery and the vein from which leg took was infected and due to that since past 6 months every day going through dressing. Again few days back my father faced some swelling in one hand which doctor said that it was due to medicines and said to need to be treated with a injection. I also have my older sister lucky to have her but my parents want to do her marriage asap as she got aged.
I am loving a girl since my undergrad before judging it love or not. I feel loyalty matters. So I just want to stay there because all the time I really feel privileged to have such kind of love My bad luck as always. After one year into this her father died and her mother found out about us.
I want to purse ca just I know that they paid well but due to financial issues unable to and joined engineering out of nowhere. Selected ece as people said that you can choose hardware or software.So I did not have knowledge about it. During my engineering tenure I collected more backlogs nevertheless to set things right. I cleared all and became first one from dept to get oncampus job. The prof of dumbness I have is that I don't know about IIT nit until my campus recruitment training after 6th semester but I saw lot of posters and ads about them but never have info about them.
I did not join my campus job as her parents need assets which I don't have one. I thought I need to join some product based company for higher package and also I feel like I love doing coding but after 2 months of graduation my father came to me and said to earn some as due to covid he is not getting any work. So I selected mnc over mindtree just because it has lower bond period but as soon as I joined in rush to make money tried digital exam failed twice which wasted 1 year but next 6 months I cleared it but they took 5 months to release ther score. So 2 years completed like this I realised and don't know what to do. Upon observing my colleagues pursuing ms I thought it might have give me better chance to make her parents accept me. So I started preparing in a way to graduate as soon as possible earliest I can join is spring 2024 intake. In this application process my father got hospitalised as I want to leave job I did not added my parents for health insurance. So all the saving vanished anyway I got rejections from all colleges I applied due to I applied late and also have backlogs. I even applied to some top 300 univs for ms in cs because I really want to challenge my self and to prove myself that I do have more caliber. Then after that tried for summer intake but then realised that no colleges were there in summer hence again applied lately to fall 2024 again same story rejected from which I want to pursue like suny buffalo, unv of Georgia & unv of south florida.
Recently, I got admission to University of albama at birmingham for ms in CS which costs me around just 46 lakhs for tution fee itself cuz they gave me extra course and extra tution fee ( integrated masters program. Not exactly direct ms in cs admit ). With expenses it might go upto 60 lakhs I think and they gave me one time scholarship of 1.5k.I need to pay deposit of 2000$ around 1.70 lakhs which I don't have so I need to take loan to pay this and also to pay processing fee to get loan sanction letter. I think I need to take for visa slot, travelling ticket fee etc..
So this is it guys I don't know what to do really. Since graduating in rush to ear some assets did not think clearly and did not take any good decision. I don't have anyone to give them clear picture to take informed decision I know most of them will say to stay here. Anyway now
Pros of ms in cs : 1. I will learn computer science which I think I like but not sure. 2. If I get job I think it will atleast give me some chance to have conv with her single parent mother.
Cons : 1. Huge loan and don't have anything to back it up. As my father health not totally good. I can't help him for 2 yrs I think financially. 2. Need to learn like someone preparing for upsc because I thought this is only thing that differentiate me from other who are knowing pursing and doing part time parllely.
Stay in India
Pro : 1.Atleast I can financially help my family though my sister supports now but my parents want to get her married but there is so many complications here too. 2. I don't have that huge loan burden
Cons : 1. I need to get into 24 Lakhs package. at least to stand in front of her mother to ask her to consider in a 6 months or so but market is so shit. 2. I won't get chance again to learn something and that college life
Dont know what to do literally even while I am pursuingy ms I don't have guarantee that her parent will wait until my graduation. Unable to take any decision feeling like lost and not able to do anythin except routine tasks. Wasting every night and day sleep. As I am from witch I don't have experience except on AWS and lost all my knowledge on proframming languages too and don't have much knowledge on DSA too.
Please be kind.

Hi, everybody! First time posting here. Any advice will be appreciated!
I (28F) have been with my boyfriend (32M) for 5 months. We met on a dating app. We are both dating with the intention of getting married and we both are very slow people, so we decided from the very beginning that we will hold off physical intimacy and let it come naturally. Despite the lack of physical intimacy, we instantly hit it off. Since we both work very long hours everyday, we usually just text 1-2x to check up on each other throughout the week and catch up on the weekend. We also work overtime on the weekend, but we always try to spend one day every weekend together to get to know each other. All our values and hobbies align.
The last time we met, we initiated physical intimacy by cuddling and kissing. Before we separated that day, we both discussed how we felt about the experience. We both agreed that it feels good and correct. We both thought that it's the most comfortable we have felt with any other people we've met. We even discussed starting a family and being with each other forever. He even invited me to a party the following weekend to meet his colleagues.
Then, he sent me a text at the end of next week saying our relationship will not work out because he feels no spark between us. What is this spark? I am pretty sure the spark was there at the beginning because that is why we spent so much time together. And as we passed the honeymoon phase, I just assumed the spark transformed into a slow growing love.
I am just very confused by his decision and cannot figure out what went wrong that made the spark so important now. Why hasn't he mentioned this before at all? On the same day I received the text, I messaged back telling him I need him to tell me in a serious conversation what is wrong, even if it's ending it. I asked to schedule a FaceTime call with him. He left me on delivered and never replied. The same night, I sent him a letter expressing my feelings and asked how he wants me to return his stuffs. It has been 6 days and he still left me on delivered and never read my messages. I just don't know how to read into his silence because I know where he lives, so I can totally go and return his belongings. What does his silence mean?
I feel like he is an anxious avoidant partner because throughout our relationship, he will pull back each time when we make milestone in our relationship. He will go through periods of no response with messages. But, he will always reply by the weekend. He did share thoughts of breaking up with me when we hit a rough patch at around 3-4 month of our relationship. I always assured him that everything will be alright as long as we communicate our needs and concerns. He always expressed understanding and slowly started to open up to me about everything in his life. Nothing was abnormal the month prior to him sending the message.
I just feel so blindsided because we did not even have a conflict beforehand. There were absolutely no signs in our most recent conversation and we even made promises to each other about the future. Since I am in grad school and finals are coming up, I have not reached out at all again. I was thinking I will go NC for a month and once I am done with finals I will reach out again to ask if he wants to keep trying and reignite the spark we used to have.
However, I decided to check his dating profile on the app we met, I saw that he updated his profile and he never even bothered to unmatch me. My emotional and mental health are not taking this move from him very well. I don't know what I to do now and I am completely shattered. I really want to see if we can work this out because we have a genuine connection.
Is it stupid to reach out again at this point? I always just thought he needs some space to think about us. Is he moving on already? Can we ever get the spark back?

I’ll try to keep it brief but there are so many layers of context behind this issue.
I’ve been with my employer for 5-10 years. Excellent performance. A few years ago after my first bout of Covid, I developed a panic disorder and was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and ADHD. Was told the anxiety may be a form of long Covid. Have been on meds and it had been in check since then. Additionally, two years ago, I suffered a fluke workplace accident and sustained several injuries and have remaining physical limitations regarding lifting, standing, and walking (active Worker’s Comp case).
My former boss was understanding and accommodating and we worked out some basic accommodations for the ADHD and physical limitations (never formalized) that allowed me to continue to succeed. The core of my job was mostly unaffected by employing some basic accommodations. The anxiety and depression were sufficiently managed by meds.
About six months ago, my former boss left. Upon his departure, he wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for me including a recommendation to promote me.
The following day, I had a significant issue with a toxic colleague who is in a supervisory role to me, in which they demanded I perform tasks in violation of my workplace restrictions. This included about 15 minutes of berating, belittling, and mocking my limitations, concluded by a demand that I do the work anyway, even if it caused me pain.
I reported the incident, which appears to have been determined unfounded, and soon after, submitted documentation formally requesting ADA accommodations. Without going into too much specific detail, the following six months have been met with hostile treatment, retaliation, reduction of hours, partial denial of accommodations with questionable and contradictory reasoning, a demand that I use FMLA in lieu of accommodations, failure to provide the accommodations they actually agreed to, and now threatening a performance plan because I am unable to meet deadlines when utilizing FMLA. Aside from unprovable hostility, the supervisor has since had two more documentable Instances of violating my restrictions, or calling me at home asking me to do work they didn’t know how to do when I was out on leave. Nothing was done in either circumstance that I reported.
Yes, I know a lot of that sounds illegal. I believe it is. I’m looking for an attorney. In the meantime, I’m just trying to survive until I can find a suitable replacement job. I’m a single income earner with a family to support.
When I say I’m trying to survive, I mean it. The psychological toll this has taken has led to suicidal ideation. I had to be taken out of work for a bit to get a reprieve and get myself away from that ledge. I’m mentally and emotionally drained and can barely function at work. My mental energy is consumed by trying not to set off the toxic supervisor, or just ruminating in a cycle of anxiety and depression.
I’m trying to find any kind of help I can or recommendations on the right accommodations to ask for until I can get out. My gut tells me that it doesn’t matter what I request - if they have been this flagrant in dismissing my reports or openly discriminatory thus far, nothing will change it now. But I need to try.
Does anyone have any recommendations specific to accommodations for anxiety caused by a work environment?
Thanks in advance.

Demographics:

• Gender: Male
• Race: White
• Residence: Suburbs outside of Philadelphia, PA
• Income bracket: Upper Middle Class
• Intended Majors: Chemical or Mechanical Engineering

Academics:

• 4.0 unweighted GPA (4.23 on a 4.5 scale where honors are +0.25 and AP is +0.5)
• My school doesn't do class rankings
• 1560 SAT (800 Math)
• Will finish high school with 12 APs although I'm only in my Junior year so I'm only taking/have taken 7
• All 5s on the 3 AP exams I've taken
• Unless I choked probably another 3 5's and a 4 after how my current exams went

Extracurriculars:

• FBLA: Made it to states twice for FBLA in Mobile App Development, placed 9th last year and 3rd this year and am now attending nationals where I probably will not place top 10 but who knows maybe I'm the goat. I am running for PR this year (No clue if I'm winning)
• Student Council: I was a chair for our school charity drive and a chair for a school dance we held and have 40+ volunteer hours in the club and am running for Historian this year (No clue if I'm winning once again)
• Tutoring Club: I am currently PR in our schools tutoring club so I run a social media although not much has been posted on it and also look through application on who to accept or deny as a tutor
• STEM Club: A little weaker since it's mostly just in house competitions but I am an active member and also am running for an officer position since a lot of officers are graduating and I'm one of the most active members but I probably won't win.
• Track and Field: I ran indoor and outdoor track and field my freshman and sophomore years and only did not run this year due to a knee injury that I've been going to physical therapy for
• NHS: I have literally done nothing in this club yet other than my 10 hours that were required.
• MiniTHON: My school hosts their own version of Penn State's "THON" where we stand for 10 hours and raise awareness for pediatric cancer. I was a part of the Business Outreach Management committee and went door to door to businesses in order to get businesses to sponsor our event as well as raising over $100 for the event outside of just businesses
• Part Time Job: I work at MOD Pizza and have worked there for roughly a year now where I've had to train numerous new employees. In the summer I work 4 days a week and in the school year I work 1-2 a week.
• German NHS (Basically nothing)

Awards:

• 9th place at Pennsylvania FBLA's State Leadership Conference in Mobile Application Development
• 3rd place at Pennsylvania FBLA's State Leadership Conference in Mobile Application Development
• Student of the Month (IK this doesn't mean a lot I just have few awards unfortunately)
• 1 time Thanksgiving football champion as starting running back (Strongest EC)

Letters of Rec:

• I asked for one from my English teacher who should write some gas and then I'm between my math and bio teacher because they both know me well and I feel like my math teacher likes me more but my bio teacher might write a better one but then again the math teacher might spend more time on one because he gets asked less for them but yeah.

Essay:

• I've only drafted my essay and not many people have looked at it but it certainly isn't bad so ill give it a 5-6/10 for now but hopefully I can make it not ass cuz otherwise I'm cooked

Schools that stick out for me that I'd want to apply to of many different difficulties and that are in no particular order:

1. Drexel
2. University of Michigan
3. GA Tech (I realize that this is a big reach)
4. University of Maryland, College Park
5. Notre Dame
6. UT Austin
7. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Grainger)

The list is very incomplete and I have yet to visit some of these campuses but I was wondering as of now what my odds would be at some of these schools and what I might have to do in the future in order to have a better shot at getting into these places

In the starting stage of my career around 1.8 yrs of experience . Yesterday i msged one of my colleague we are both on bench but she is on bench for a longer period then me and also one year more experience shes having. So she said that her manager had asked her to give resignation as she will be effected is company terminate her because of lack of project. So she handed her resignation one day back and today she told me so should i also be scared because right now i am peeing my pants hearing this. But in my case my manager hadn't told me shit whats gonna happen.
What should be my best move now.
One more follow up question - if company lay me off will it not give me experience letter , termination letter and all those formalities.
And if i apply for some other company in future will it make me look bad that i got laid off?

Transitioning to a permanent role, how to approach my manager?
I began a position this January covering a maternity leave in the legal team. Now, my colleague has presented her resignation letter, coinciding with the expiration of my contract. I see this as a great opportunity to continue with the company, especially since she recommended me for the position before leaving. However, being early in my career, I'm unsure about the best approach.
For reference, my colleague and I essentially formed the whole legal team together, with her in a senior role and me in a junior position. The person I am covering is a senior so I would still be a junior, the dynamic of the team would not change. While it seems like the perfect moment for me to step into her role, I'm not sure if I should approach my manager or wait for them to initiate the conversation.
Additionally,, I started working one month in advance and have been taking on work beyond my scope, aiming to give 200% effort and secure a place in the company after the person I'm covering returns, so I guess I can use that for something, maybe.
With three months remaining before the position needs to be filled, and her resignation being recent, I'm seeking advice on the best way to approach this situation. Any guidance or insights would be greatly appreciated!

I began a position this January covering a maternity leave in the legal team. Now, my colleague has presented her resignation letter, coinciding with the expiration of my contract. I see this as a great opportunity to continue with the company, especially since she recommended me for the position before leaving. However, being early in my career, I'm unsure about the best approach.
For reference, my colleague and I essentially formed the whole legal team together, with her in a senior role and me in a junior position. The person I am covering is a senior so I would still be a junior, the dynamic of the team would not change. While it seems like the perfect moment for me to step into her role, I'm not sure if I should approach my manager or wait for them to initiate the conversation.
Additionally,, I started working one month in advance and have been taking on work beyond my scope, aiming to give 200% effort and secure a place in the company after the person I'm covering returns, so I guess I can use that for something, maybe.
With three months remaining before the position needs to be filled, and her resignation being recent, I'm seeking advice on the best way to approach this situation. Any guidance or insights would be greatly appreciated!

I’ve been invited to a meeting with my direct manager (a company owner) on Thursday.
The letter inviting me is quite formal but also quite vague. It talks about an open discussion on the structure of the department.
It ends by saying I’m entitled to have a colleague with me for the meeting if I want (the company does not recognise trade unions).
I replied asking if they want me to prepare anything and would it just be the two of us in the meeting. He replied to say I did not need to prepare anything and one of the girls from HR would be sitting in as “a note taker”.
I was planning on quitting this summer anyway but I assume if they want to make me redundant I should let them rather than resigning as it will get me a (small) few quid more?

Hi Reddit, I'm new, and my best friend uses Reddit so I hope they don't come to this sub. I only know about it because I listen to RSlash.
I (NB 25) love my best friend (NB 29) in a "more than friends" way.
I'll be honest, I'm terrible when it comes to relationships. I get clingy, lose myself in the relationship, always feel the need to "prove" my love; essentially I am an easy target for bad people. Because of this I haven't been in a relationship for 6 years, it helps that I'm asexual (sex repulsed), but I still have the desire for romantic love.
Me and my friend met online about 2 years ago and we instantly clicked. At the time I was still weary about getting into a relationship, as I wasn't confident that I wouldn't slip into those unhealthy habits. Funny enough, that was also around the time my therapist cancelled my therapy appointment without telling me and ghosted me. I'm guessing I didn't appear mentally ill enough? I don't know. And no she was fine, she just went on a vacation.
Anyways, me and my friend talked a lot, and clearly our talks were more than platonic. But hey maybe I'm wrong and it's normal for people to call their best friends by pet names, say I love you over and over again, and send love letters in the mail about how much you love them and want them in your life. They used to be so loving, and I felt so secure in what we were.
Then Christmas happened, and it hasn't been the same since. They got asked out on a date by a work colleague and accepted it, which shattered my heart. I told them that if they pursued the relationship, that I wouldn't feel comfortable being as loving as we were and that we would have to talk as regular friends do. I asked them what we were and if they loved me the way I love them. It hurt when they said that they weren't sure.
They cancelled the date with the other person, but I don't think I've recovered from that day. Even though from it we decided that we would plan on living together once we were at stable places in our careers (we were both having issues with our jobs).
One time I got super drunk with their friend, and the friend said my best friend loved me and wanted to kiss me but just would never admit it, which felt good to hear. I've heard from their friends that they know they love me and that I've been a force of good in their life, one asked me to please stay because I make them happy. Essentially all their friends have been saying that my friend loves me but just doesn't know it.
Meanwhile my friends, who aren't online all that much so haven't seen how me and my friend interact, have been wanting to set me up. One was trying to set up a double date between her bf, and then me and her friend. When I told my friend about it, they were obviously hurt and got quiet for the night, being sheepish to tell me that I should do what I want to do.
I didn't want to, I still wanted to be with my friend, even though we weren't "together" together. That was a few months, and the last time it's happened.
So why am I here? Shouldn't it be obvious that we have feelings for each other?
These past few months they've slowly been showing their affection less and it's been bothering me.
They get off work and I ask them how their day went, and they'll say they're tired and going to bed, then do exactly that. They won't ask about my day, and that will be our only interaction for the day. At one point this was happening every single day.
They no longer say all those kind words that made me fall for them in the beginning, about how I make their life worth living. They've stopped calling me all those pet names that made me feel special, they rarely even say "I love you" first.
I spoke with them, about how I miss these pet names, that I miss being told that I matter to them. I tell them that these are my love language and that I don't feel loved, and all they say is that they're sorry and they don't know how to make me feel loved. I JUST TOLD YOU HOW!
They used to plan on coming to visit me once they get the money, but when they do get the money they visit family instead. I understand that family comes first, but it still hurts to know that they basically lied to me.
I'm reaching my breaking point, I'm tired of playing this game of "will we, won't we". But at the same time I'm afraid that I might be over reacting, and I don't want to leave them alone if they do really want something. Plus it's really hard finding a partner when you're sex repulsed.
So should I just move on? I haven't told them that I'm ready to break off what little we have, but other than that I have been VERY up front with my emotions as I have them.
TL;DR: I'm anxious and tired after playing around with someone with commitment issues after 2 years.

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So I work for a school in California. I've been there now for 2½ years. This week, I put in a request for 7 hrs of my PTO, which is out of my 40 hours I have. The only time off was 12 hours out of 40 hours sick leave for a medical emergency when I had to leave after 2 hrs of working. After I put in the request for the 7 hours of PTO I received the approval email it was accompanied by a very stern and in my opinion threatening message that stated because of my attendance and the amount of absences the next request will result in the hours taken off my pay would be deducted accordingly and a letter of reprimand will be placed in my file. What I'm wondering is that even legal if I have the sick leave and PTO I know they can deduct the hours from me for not notifying them of my intention to use pto or not notifying them that I would be out sick but threatening to deduct my pay? While I have all those hours and my attendance has been exemplary, I even skipped family members' funerals and doctors/dental appointments to be at work. So my thinking is because of recent budget cuts many of my colleagues are being pink slipped luckily I was not but feel they might be looking for a reason to terminate me instead of going the pink slip route where I would be able to bid for an opening based on seniority or laid off allowing me to collect unemployment. Any and all assistance, advice and comment would be greatly appreciated. TY