u/timeausTestosterone

Trying to add the Museum that I work at on Google Maps because people keep (reasonably) getting lost trying to get there. We aren't a for-profit or a business, so while we debated joining as a business (so that we can reply to reviews and manage the page), we eventually decided against it after we tried and they asked for proof of business verification stuff that would have involved calling the University building that we are located in.

So I go ahead to add us as a missing place, and the request seems to go in fine. I add the location pin, name, category, and a handful of good pictures that showcase the place existing with the big sign on the wall, the opening hours, the website, the screenshot of the opening hours on the website. Until very quickly, it says we're not accepted with (6) issues. Okay, which of the 7 submitted details weren't accepted? No clue, it just says (6). And there's a disclaimer that says it might be incorrectly declined because it's not like they know what they're doing, but then there's not even a place to refute the claim? So what, you just sit there and wonder why it's been declined? Can they not at the very least have a page that says "This is the part that we are confused about" or something?

There's literally another museum on campus a few minutes away that is fine and dandy showing up on the map because they were added some years ago before they made it difficult to add locations.

I'm wondering if I should try adding it again on my personal account instead of the museum's email, because that way I have some usage history on this account and I'm 25 points away from Level 3 which is better than nothing. But I'm concerned about it getting flagged as spam if I resubmit a request with similar (if not identical data). I'd record a walk-around video, but unfortunately, my phone's out of commission right now and I'd be unable to do it.

I've seen posts with people who have had similar issues. Does anything actually work, or are we just locked from adding new information to Google Maps forever until somebody figures this out?

I made a Google Maps Help Community post here, but it's gotten no replies so far.

Disclaimer: I might delete this post later. But if it happens to speak to some people, I may leave it up and at the very least revise it. Just need to get my thoughts out there for a second. I've got an exam in five hours that I need to quickly lock in for, but I just don't know what to do with myself right about now.

---

Fall term, I was trying to get connected with UW health services. Intake person on the phone said that my life sounded hard enough that they wanted to get me in with a random counselor as soon as possible for a temporary session. It was an awful experience. A video call with a person whose name I can't remember, and while they may have been a great counselor to some people out there, all I remember is my trying to explain the context for my extremely dysfunctional family situation and her laughing at me. All I could remember is hearing her apologizing while laughing because of how funny she found it, and myself thinking "Yeah, now imagine how funny it would be to live through that. Every day.".

I didn't see them again, but luckily, I was assigned great counselor at UW health services afterwards. We were a bit slow at first, but once I finished giving thorough context through many ongoing sessions, they were great. Very trauma-informed and understanding of my particular situation, even though I've never met anyone with something similar. They were a great compromise between understanding and firm, making sure not to be so soft that I don't do anything with myself, but not so harsh as to make me feel awful. They told me that I'm going through so much that trying to finish my studies is like trying to swim a marathon when you have weights attached to your feet,. Where it's hard to even tread water, you can barely even move forwards in your lane. And it thus becomes impossible to swim, let alone complete a degree in a notoriously difficult university. Gave me a bunch of great book recommendations that felt like they had put my life into words that weren't my own.

Things were going okay for a while, but this counselor recently put in their two weeks. My last session with them was a few months ago. I've been put with a new therapist since, who isn't as bad of a match as whoever I had for my first session, but they haven't exactly been clicking with me. This may just be because we have to do all the intake and context-giving again (and for me, that context is extremely dense), but I just remember them asking me how many days I struggle to get out of bed and experience severe lows, I said "about half" as a lowball, and they seemed so surprised. "Half? Why so many?" when I'm surprised I didn't say even more. It felt alienating. I don't feel as understood, and while I don't want there to be a bias in place, there may be one.

And so here I am, trying to swim when I can't tread water. There's the exam tonight that makes me want to die when I think about it. I hate this existence so much, I don't know what to do with myself.

I'm trying to take a lighter courseload next term. But it just kind of fucking sucks that all my life I've wanted to excel, and yet my nature and nurture set me up for what? Working myself to death while running on fumes, excelling for as long as I can on nothing but academic persistence and a desire for success, until I burn out in university and turn into a hollowed out husk of myself.

To explain how I'm feeling in other terms, I'll cite a conversation that I had with my favourite counselor:

>TT: "Was I cooked from the start when I was born into an abusive household and I wanted to do grad school?"
COUNSELOR: "No, but that will make it a lot more difficult."
TT: "Damn."

All my friends that want to do grad school in my major are all so smart and cool and functioning. Hell, even my depressed friends are geniuses getting research positions. I look at them and wonder, "Why can't I be less like me and more like them?". It's not even grad school anymore, I barely know if I can get my degree.

Where are the people who got fucked up and stayed fucked up and didn't get over it like me.

I want to talk to someone in grad school who had their brain pulverized into mush by their circumstances. I want to talk to someone who's getting into grad school who has irreparable trauma-induced brain damage and still made it. Where are the traumatized geniuses who struggled like I did—to the extent that I did—and still made it by the skin of their teeth. I guess this is how it feels to stop being the tortured genius gifted kid and transition into the burned out washed up depressed student—and all of a sudden, you get to feel what it's like to feel as dumb as you've always been.

And I'm not dumb, that's what I'm supposed to to tell myself, and I'm supposed to say, "I can do this".

I just want for one day to say this and have it feel real.

Lost my phone in Waterloo while walking on my way to take the local city bus (boarding GRT Stop ID: 3943). While I never boarded a GO Train or Bus, I was searching for it and watching the GPS location.

Initially, it was static and unmoving near the stop across from the one I boarded despite me not having gone there myself (GRT Stop ID: 2675). Then, I watched it move to the University of Waterloo Terminal at a walking pace, and then continue at with locations and timestamps matching up with a certain departure for a certain route yesterday (I'm being vague in the interest of not giving too much information so that somebody else doesn't try and reclaim my phone for me). I think that someone found it on the ground and gave it to the GO Bus Driver, and then the bus continued on the rest of its route. Admittedly, this is strange to me, since I was at a GRT stop which would have had a local lost-and-found (as opposed to Union Station which is many, many hours away), and I don't think that it has a GO stop nearby aside from the University of Waterloo one.

I currently see that it's at a particular GO Transit garage. That makes me think that it's still in a bus. I'm admittedly worried that someone may steal it when the bus goes out again for its next departure, and I'm not sure what to do. Is there a way to find what particular trip or bus number corresponds to a previous departure? Is there a way to have someone look for an item? The phone still has battery, and I can make it ring so it can be found. But I contacted the Lost and Found office and they said I'd just have to wait until it gets found and processed.

I'm also worried about retrieving my phone. I have some friends in Toronto right now that would be able to get my phone from the Union Station, but I was told that I'd have to come pick it up myself. I work full-time, have an upcoming exam, and also am getting surgery within the next few weeks and don't think I can make time to get it.

I submitted a Lost Item form already, but the waiting game is admittedly making me anxious, since I need to be able to take phone calls for my surgery in case they need something from me. I reached the character limit for the "additional information" section and neglected to mention the phone's phone number, since the phone number I included in the form was my family's home phone number (and that way someone can reply, is what I figured). I can also see the battery gradually dwindling, so I'm not sure what to do once I can't keep tracking it anymore. I keep calling the lost and found office, but they aren't picking up.

This is admittedly strange to me, since if the phone was given to a bus driver, why would it still be in the bus garage? I called and confirmed that there's no such thing as a lost-and-found locker at the Go Garage that I had checked, so is it still lost on the bus? Does anyone have any advice for this? Or if the person who happened to find my phone happens to have Reddit, do they know what happened to it?