As I have written before on this subreddit, I lost my grandma to pancreatic cancer in the last days of 2023. As I have been thinking about her final months leading up to her death in the last 3 years, I have realized that there are a number of things that people never really tell you about pancreatic cancer until you actually have the misfortune of experiencing it yourself whether it be you or your loved one:

1. The Literal Price of Pancreatic cancer. When people rant about how expensive pancreatic cancer is they only talk about the more obvious costs such as the chemo, hospital and almost inevitably the hospice expenses. Such as plane tickets for hospitals out of state, lost work hours spent caregiving, and surprisingly the amount of money spent on fast food because nobody in the household has the executive function needed to cook. While my mom was away in Minnesota taking care of my grandma, my younger brother (14 at the time) and I were staying behind in Maryland with our dad who can't cook AT ALL, so we could be eating fast food for as long as a fortnight at a time. And this is not only expensive, but also not the healthiest either.

2. Everyday is trauma Even though it took 10 hellish months for pancreatic cancer to kill my grandmother, we were ALWAYS on edge because I knew that pancreatic cancer can kill in as little as a few weeks after diagnosis. And that's the thing about pancreatic cancer. You are always living in fear and hour to hour. I really hate to admit this but by Christmas break of my freshman year of college, when my grandma was ultimately put on dialysis and intubated, I would both pray she would recover even though I knew she wouldn't. But at the same time, I was secretly hoping she would just die already. Not because I didn't love her, but because the whole year had also been so miserable as a whole and I wanted to get things over with.

It feels like you are watching the passenger revolt scene in the movie United 93. You keep telling yourself that everything will be fine and everybody on the plane will be okay, even though history has already written the ending and you know all the characters die at the end of the movie. Or like looking at a Deadman walking tornado standing still. You keep telling yourself it isn't coming your way, even though you know it is. But day to day (or even hour to hour), you are basically in the deep dark biome on Hardcore mode with the Warden walking around because there is NO respawn button in this world.

3. NOBODY understands I honestly would never wish this shit on anybody. Not even on somebody as disgusting of a human as Beria or even Hitler. Going back to how I likened the whole experience of denial to watching the passenger revolt scene from United 93, well think of it like this a bit further. The metaphor breaks down because most of the audience can walk out of the movie theater and fuck off back to their OWN happy lives, meanwhile the families of pancreatic cancer patients are stuck with this shit.

Unless god forbid you have had the same experience, I don’t think people can understand what it will do not just to the patient but to the entire family.

https://preview.redd.it/ivy73aeni8bh1.png?width=2360&format=png&auto=webp&s=440e25e04d434d8466237d080ea5050b1dc84e37

For the land of the “free” and the home of the brave 🫡🇺🇸

I am currently working on a manga series that I have been planning out for over a year now (wrote the story and script in advance). Now I didn’t use Sora for videos but I used it for image generation. And although I am doing all of the art for the characters myself, I was using Sora for the backgrounds that would be based on real places. But now that Sora has been discontinued, I am going to need to find an alternative that will allow me for free to get the same quality of images converted from a photo into the desired black and white manga style.

It took me 2 YEARS for me to piece together that my "IB" school never even REGISTERED the TWO of us for the IB exams.

Update on the possible lawsuit against my "IB" School: How do I reach out to the IBO to verify some important details? (OG post in the body)

Actually 2nd UPDATE (Previous posts linked in Body) on Lawsuit Against My IB School: It is DONE! I Filed it!

Ok, so you remember how I filed the lawsuit against my school last month? Well, I don't really think that might be the end of the story. Partially because the court date isn't going to be for a few months and partially because of what the school told my parents about why my class couldn't sit for the exams. I was speaking with my mom and FINALLY told her about my glaring suspicion about what might have happened to me in the IB program. However, she rebuffed the possibility that I was never registered and told me that the school had withdrawn us from the exams because of our poor performance on our mock exams. I think with this, I should probably tell you guys the exact sequence of events to see if something seems very suspicious or if procedures were violated.

In case if you don't remember me saying this somewhere in that long-ass list I made in my original post, my class took our ONLY mock exams in the LAST WEEK of APRIL. And something to note is that the mocks that were taken were for Physics SL, A&I HL, and English L&L HL. We NEVER took mocks for our remaining tested subjects which were Spanish B SL and Psychology HL. I am going to be very honest with myself, although I did a fairly acceptable job on the L&L papers, my classmate and I both did pretty miserably on the A&I and Physics mocks. However, there is much more to the story specifically with Physics.

We mocked Physics papers 1 and 2 on April 24, 2023 meaning that we only had 8 DAYS between the mocks and the actual exams. And again, this was the ONLY time we ever did mocks ever. And even more important to the story, we were not given the REQUIRED formula booklet in the physics mock. All we had were our calculators. That's it. As a result, my classmate and I were flying completely blind especially on paper 2 where the formula booklet is truly the make or break. I simply ended up just leaving the questions for content we didn't cover blank while my classmate randomly came up with random formulas (from what she told me). As a result of this, I had to take this mock exam AGAIN after school that same day. However, because I used pen on the mock exam, I had to mark my answers in a different color pen in order to tell the difference between my answers on the first attempt vs the ones on the 2nd administration of the mock exam (they didn't give us clean exam sheets after the original run)

Now here is where things get even weirder. On May 1, 2023, we were both emailed a PDF copy of the IB exam schedule for May 2023 by our Psych/English teacher so this would have been the night BEFORE the ACTUAL Physics exams. Then, the next day on May 2, 2023 I was in my usual first period class obsessively trying to cram for the Physics papers when the same teacher who sent us that email the night before called the two of us to his classroom. He then told us that the IBO had supposedly "forgotten" to mail us the exam papers, so we wouldn't be having IB exams that week. It wasn't until May 5th, so the official end of week 1 that the million-dollar bomb was dropped on us by our DP coordinator/principal/owner of the school. On the morning of May 5, 2023, I was called into another teacher's room to speak on the phone with our DPC. In case you are wondering why this was over the phone and not in person, the DPC was apparently on a class trip to Ecuador. But the phone call initially started out pretty normal (if you can call it that). She first asked me about my measurements for my graduation gown and my TOK exhibition progress (I think for the sake of the length of this post, that story should be for another time.) before she then said that 2 of our IAs (HL A&I and SL Physics) scored below a 3, disqualifying us from the diploma and as a result, she supposedly cancelled the exams for the entire graduating class.

Now when this happened, I KNEW something was fishy since our IB coordinator only mentioned our IAs and not our whole subjects scored below a 3. If you look at the failing conditions in order to be disqualified from the IB diploma, you will need to have MORE THAN 2 grades of a 2 or less. NOT an equal to. Most importantly, this phone call was on the morning of MAY 5 and IB results aren't given until July 6th. So realistically, how would my IB coordinator/principal have even known what my grades were AT the START of the exam season?

And now, we ff to what my parents were told. My DPC told my parents that same evening (also over the phone) that the reason I couldn't take exams that season was because two of my mocks were bad and she was doing this supposedly to "protect me" from having failing the IB diploma "look bad on my CV". But again, I only ever really received HALF of the entire story considering as mentioned before because we were never told the predicted grades for our other classes and also, neither myself nor my parents were informed of being "withdrawn" beforehand even though at the time I was already 18.

I understand that this was indeed a VERY long post, and it will likely be my last post around this subject matter for a while, but I am writing this update in order to inquire about the following procedures of what SHOULD happen in a properly functioning IB school:

• - What is the latest a student can be withdrawn?
• -Are students who are withdrawn required to give their DPC prior consent?
• -Judging from the evidence and timing of the events, was a non-registration or a non-consensual withdrawal more likely to have been what happened or maybe even a coverup?

Thank you all SOOOO much for your support throughout this. Because of how long this post has gotten, I would be more than thrilled to answer your questions or need for clarification. And it isn't like I am asking for a free 45, or an automatic pass. All I am asking for with this lawsuit is to finish what I started fair and square and receive ANY result. Good or bad.

I, 21F was minding my own business yesterday when my parents started screaming at each other. Now, because they were screaming in Arabic and since I don't really speak the language, I don't really know what they were arguing about. But eventually, the quarrel got too much for my mom (56F) so she went into her bedroom. Unfortunately, my father (62M) then turned his anger to ME for some reason. Now, I wasn't doing anything at all to provoke him. I didn't have any missed assignments (wtf it is summer break for me rn), I didn't lie about anything, nor was I angry about anything but he suddenly turned his attention to me and started shouting at me saying "You are doing VERY bad things!!" (like wtf!?!?)

He said I "became a big liar" (I didn't even open my mouth) and attacked me for "Always being angry" ("To be angry is to be human."-Padme Amidala) and how this is "all because of my autism." He then lashed out at me for at least 2 minutes when I hadn't even done ANYTHING wrong to provoke him. He even said if I didn't like it here, I could just "grab a bag of mine and just leave." (I didn't bring up anything about leaving.)

I just then decided to just follow my mom into her room and then take a shower after that. But I can tell that my mom is also still stressed about the whole situation as well. Today, my dad yelled at her AGAIN (but fortunately he didn't dump his frustrations onto me) and my mom was so frustrated that she ended up burning a quesadilla due to how emotionally drained she was. Just a few minutes ago I was talking with my mom and she told me that my dad was telling her that she needed to seek "help" even though the both of us can clearly see who the real problem is.

I think there is a very good reason why for my senior year of university I want to live in a dorm instead of with my parents. To at least get a vacation from their drama.

First of all, I just want to say once more thank you all sooooo much for all your support on my 3 previous posts which are all linked here.

Original Post: It took me 2 YEARS for me to piece together that my "IB" school never even REGISTERED the TWO of us for the IB exams.

1st Update: Update on the possible lawsuit against my "IB" School: How do I reach out to the IBO to verify some important details? (OG post in the body)

(Actually 2nd) Update: 3rd UPDATE (Previous posts linked in Body) on Lawsuit Against My IB School: It is DONE! I Filed it!

Now this isn't an update post just yet considering that the first court date isn't going to be for a few months. However, I have started to notice that even though it was never the IBO's responsibility to register me, I have noticed several flaws in the way they expect schools to manage their programs which might have led to what happened. In case you don't already know, students are not permitted to register themselves for the IB exams and everything has to go through an IB coordinator and then to the IBO. I have also read a handful of other posts where other people describe similar things happening in their schools as well.

This now brings me to my million-dollar question for fellow IB students who experienced similar things:

Fellow IB students who did NOT get the chance to take the exams due to administrative incompetence, what are your stories? What went wrong and was your coordinator held accountable, or were they able to dodge the consequences? When and how did you find out?

Thank you guys SOOOOOOOO much for all the support on my previous post. But I know for sure that venting about my parents won't really make a dent for the better into my life on the very long term. Speaking of, I am sure you might have pieced together from the linked posts that my original plan here at UMD was to join the aerospace engineering major, but both extremely tragic extenuating circumstances in tandem with my parents' subsequent meddling behavior essentially crushed the dream of that direct and straightforward path. Right now, I am a psychology Bachelor of Science major who is so far doing well for the most part.

In case you don't have the patience to read through all my posts on this matter, here is a quick summary:

Freshman year, I was dealing with my maternal grandmother being put on hospice for terminal pancreatic cancer, the fallout of my high school’s IB diploma disaster, and some of the worst mental health struggles of my life while trying to survive gateway courses like CHEM135 and MATH141. I later recovered CHEM135, but timing matters a lot for engineering.

Then came the year before junior year, which was honestly the breaking point. My parents pressured me to drop PHYS161 after I got off the waitlist because they thought it would “ruin my GPA,” even though it was one of the major gateway requirements for engineering. They made me show them the screen to prove I dropped it. That was effectively my last realistic chance to stay on track to graduate in engineering within five years or maybe even 4 considering that in the last weeks of Spring 2025, I constructed a massive catch-up plan for the summers and semesters. (Basically, I would prioritize pre-req chains first before tackling courses like ENAE202 and ENES100.) And my parents ruined it.

That same summer, they were also threatening guardianship, restricting my devices even when I needed them for coursework, forcing FERPA access, showing up to advising meetings, and throwing me around between psychology, biology, and information science with no real understanding of what any of those paths required. At some point, I stopped fighting for aerospace because I was too busy trying to survive my own house, while walking on eggshells.

Right now, I am a Psychology B.S. major and, for the most part, I am doing okay academically. UMD Psychology is still a Limited Enrollment Program with clear gateway requirements and structure, and I’ve managed to stay afloat there.

But emotionally, I still feel the grief of losing the life I originally wanted every single day. Considering I am a rising senior; it would be pretty much pointless to simply finish the gateway requirements over the summer and then apply to engineering and (hopefully) get in via an appeal because my parents aren't willing to pay for 3 more years of education. So I guess, my best bet from my understanding would be to just finish my current major and maybe then apply to aerospace later.

Tbh, I do acknowledge that on paper, I would be ineligible for aerospace as for the fact that:

-I repeated CHEM135 and if I were to make an attempt to re-apply, I would also have to repeat MATH141 since I got a D+. I unfortunately haven't taken PHYS161 yet, so I would have to take that class and hopefully get a B- (preferably a higher grade) on my first attempt.

But...

-On my second attempt of CHEM135, I was able to get the required grade (C)

• On my first attempt of CHEM135 I went through the events described above.

• My GPA is a 3.1 roughly.

And:

• I tried to seek help for my mental health early, but my parents did nothing to help me get to therapy.

I mean, aerospace is why I came to UMD for in the first place, and I am not going to let the foolish choices made by my parents stop me. Although I am not responsible for much of the trouble they have gotten me into, I am fully responsible for how I move forwards.

Post 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1p8k57c/it_took_me_2_years_for_me_to_piece_together_that/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Post 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1pqhoik/update_on_the_possible_lawsuit_against_my_ib/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

It is DONE! I have filed the lawsuit. I understand it was on the last possible day I could file it, but I am happy to say it is DONE! When I spoke with my attorney back in April, I was told that I should probably appeal to the IBO but it is vital to reiterate that this is NOT by any means a grade dispute, or an educational malpractice claim. This is a lawsuit for a breach of contract and maybe even fraud. Why?

Because there exists no grade to appeal

How So?

Because I never got to take the IB exams, meaning I was robbed of the right to even be assessed. Given that it is May right now, I am of course not really expecting too many people to comment on this post. But I really have wanted to say to this subreddit, thank you sooooo much for all your support. While it wouldn't be feasible to sue the IBO due to them being an international organization, I think that if my lawyer thinks it would be a good idea, I should go to the media with this to show how even what should be the easiest students to account for can still fall through the cracks.

https://preview.redd.it/8632ndqsjxzg1.png?width=1348&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba01673df7bb40009e75306c9684827c9ffe21b1

Just got this 2 minutes ago.

On this subreddit, I have seen at least 6 posts about a hacking attack on the school. Are we seriously being hacked. Also on my laptop the eduroam wifi is garbage rn, but I think my phone is working normally.​​

Thank you guys SOOOOOOOO much for all the support on my previous post. But I know for sure that venting about my parents won't really make a dent for the better into my life on the very long term. Speaking of, I am sure you might have pieced together from the linked posts that my original plan here at UMD was to join the aerospace engineering major, but both extremely tragic extenuating circumstances in tandem with my parents' subsequent meddling behavior essentially crushed the dream of that direct and straightforward path. Right now, I am a psychology Bachelor of Science major who is so far doing well for the most part.

In case you don't have the patience to read through all my posts on this matter, here is a quick summary:

Freshman year, I was dealing with my maternal grandmother being put on hospice for terminal pancreatic cancer, the fallout of my high school’s IB diploma disaster, and some of the worst mental health struggles of my life while trying to survive gateway courses like CHEM135 and MATH141. I later recovered CHEM135, but timing matters a lot for engineering.

Then came the year before junior year, which was honestly the breaking point. My parents pressured me to drop PHYS161 after I got off the waitlist because they thought it would “ruin my GPA,” even though it was one of the major gateway requirements for engineering. They made me show them the screen to prove I dropped it. That was effectively my last realistic chance to stay on track to graduate in engineering within five years or maybe even 4 considering that in the last weeks of Spring 2025, I constructed a massive catch-up plan for the summers and semesters. (Basically, I would prioritize pre-req chains first before tackling courses like ENAE202 and ENES100.) And my parents ruined it.

That same summer, they were also threatening guardianship, restricting my devices even when I needed them for coursework, forcing FERPA access, showing up to advising meetings, and throwing me around between psychology, biology, and information science with no real understanding of what any of those paths required. At some point, I stopped fighting for aerospace because I was too busy trying to survive my own house, while walking on eggshells.

Right now, I am a Psychology B.S. major and, for the most part, I am doing okay academically. UMD Psychology is still a Limited Enrollment Program with clear gateway requirements and structure, and I’ve managed to stay afloat there.

But emotionally, I still feel the grief of losing the life I originally wanted every single day. Considering I am a rising senior; it would be pretty much pointless to simply finish the gateway requirements over the summer and then apply to engineering and (hopefully) get in via an appeal because my parents aren't willing to pay for 3 more years of education. So I guess, my best bet from my understanding would be to just finish my current major and maybe then apply to aerospace later.

Tbh, I do acknowledge that on paper, I would be ineligible for aerospace as for the fact that:

-I repeated CHEM135 and if I were to make an attempt to re-apply, I would also have to repeat MATH141 since I got a D+. I unfortunately haven't taken PHYS161 yet, so I would have to take that class and hopefully get a B- (preferably a higher grade) on my first attempt.

But...

-On my second attempt of CHEM135, I was able to get the required grade (C)

- On my first attempt of CHEM135 I went through the events described above.

- My GPA is a 3.1 roughly.

And:

- I tried to seek help for my mental health early, but my parents did nothing to help me get to therapy.

I mean, aerospace is why I came to UMD for in the first place, and I am not going to let the foolish choices made by my parents stop me. Although I am not responsible for much of the trouble they have gotten me into, I am fully responsible for how I move forwards.