It was Monday morning as I walked into my 11:00 AM Organic Chemistry 2 class. It was a feeling all too familiar. The reason being it was my second time taking the class that is talked up to be the hardest course one has to take in the first four years of any pre-health related major. I found myself sitting next to a girl who I recognized from a few other classes I was enrolled in. As we made small talk, we began to discuss why we were retaking this class. There were only twelve people enrolled in this section that was created for people retaking the course, so it wasn't like it was a common thing to be retaking Organic two. I started by saying "Oh, I didn't study enough."
             She replied, "Yeah I didn't go to class enough".
             We accepted each other's answers and proceeded to retake Chemistry 342, hopefully, for the last time.
             This may have seemed like a legitimate conversation but when looking at it again I realized this was a classic case of aligning actions by way of accounts. What does this mean? People use either accounts or disclaimers to save face when they have engaged in a behavior that may be viewed by others as disruptive or unacceptable.
             After reading the section on aligning actions in the text book, I tried to think of an instance when I had participated in aligning actions and I instantly thought of that example. In my mind, for the past few years I was playing the role of an intellectually smart individual and the fact that I received a "D" in a class led me to believe others would start to question my academic ability. So when asked by my classmate why I was retaking organic I simply made up an excuse that wasn't necessarily true. I know I probably could have studied more but I did study quite a bit. It was just easier to blame it on something other than me not understanding the subject matter. The more I thought about aligning actions I realized that anytime the...