Officially Withdrawn

Well, today was the day.  I didn't have the intention to go officially withdraw from the university today, but that's what ended up happening.  I went to campus early, in the hopes of finding someone who could just tell me what would happen, how much I would owe, etc if I did drop out. I swear I intended to go to class. Academic guilt is stabbing me in the back, screaming at me about not going.

I of course, logically, went to the financial aid office, as I was trying to find out what would happen with my scholarship that I'm currently being funded with. Well, the nice lady at the desk says she can't tell me what would happen, just that we're in the point where it's a 50% refund for classes, and that I need to talk to the donor of the scholarship money.

I ask who the donor is, since I don't have a clue and am unable to find anything about the supposed scholarship online. Lady goes to check. Lo and behold, she nor anyone in the financial aid office, don't have a clue either. So...

I get sent to the registrar's office. There, I ask the same questions, but get shuffled around between two different people, until I finally break down crying. I do feel bad for the poor guy I cried in front of, but he ended up calling his boss over. 

His boss is literally my hero in all of this. Best person at this university.

I explained the situation to him, the typo, the department dodging my questions, the university dodging my questions. And he says the only way he can help is if I have documentation of all this. Why yes, I actually do. Everybody yelled at and made fun of me because I prefer to do things through email. Yes, I'm lazy and hate talking to people directly. But email leaves a paper trail.

So I printed out my paper trail (about thirty pages long of emails, offer letters, and anything else that shows how no one would help) and brought it to him. He ended up filing a petition so I won't have to pay the school anything except the refund money I was to live off of (which I expected). And he's pretty much positive on that one.

That was more than enough to make me happy, but he went even further and filed another petition for me, one that, if passed, will remove the W grades from my transcripts and make it as if I never attended the university. So if for some outlandish reason I ever wanted to try this goofy process again, I don't have to explain this to some other admissions committee. 

This past few weeks have been a complete and utter nightmare. I've been completely abused by the system, as well as having to catch just a glimpse of what other graduate students are forced to go through. In a mere two weeks, I was already slowly being brainwashed by the academic world. It's a huge weight off my shoulders. I was feeling completely hopeless last night and just having this moment of something working out in my benefit has given me renewed hope that this will turn out okay in the end.

The last thing I have to do before I can get as far away from this university as possible is to find someone to sublease my apartment. I have faith that I can get that done relatively quickly and efficiently. I'm ready to leave this godawful state.