I told the truth.

In my email to Kuperminc I told her why I missed class. I always try to be upfront. There's no reason to make up wild stories about death and diseases, so I emailed her and told her I didn't come to class because I hadn't completed all of the work.

Here's her reply:

Hi Tracie:
Thanks for your message. I understand how you feel, but in the future, please do NOT miss class, even if you feel like you have not gotten enough done. Part of the purpose of class is to get you UNSTUCK, so you are doing yourself a disservice when you skip. I look forward to seeing you this week.
take care,
Melissa

I feel what she's saying, the class could've helped me get more ideas so that I could've gone further with the poster for next time even though I didn't do anything with it. I think we've all been in a place where you just feel so unprepared that you'd just rather fake sick or have somebody "die" to save face. It's a sad truth and maybe something I need to work on. Fellow PC students, let's all try to work on this for the remainder of our PC careers. If nothing else, we'll all develop a really thick skin (for those of us who haven't already).

I won't miss anymore classes Melissa!!!! I promise!