Dear Collegiettes,
With the vast amounts of luck I have been having this semester, I am launching a survival guide, advising how to get through those not-so-awesome situations we all face at some point or another. You may have already been through it, you may have already gone through it, you may go through it at some point, or maybe you’re that lucky lady that never will. No matter where you are, these survival guides are for you from my experience, because nothing says quality advice like “Been there, and done that!”
If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them my way, because I’ve probably “Been there, done that!” and if not, I’m totally not opposed to having you write a survival guide as a guest writer! All of our writers at Her Campus WVWC are always looking for ways to mix things up and try new things — hence why this segment is starting.
I’m going to do a short blip for this week’s “Been There, Done That!”
Been There, Done That: My Computer Crashed the Day a Midterm Was Due
I used to look down on people who said that they had their computer crash the day a big project was due. I thought, “Sure it did. You’re just trying to buy more time on your assignment. Just procrastinate and turn in a half-butt piece of work like the rest of us, and learn your lesson!” That was, until my computer “conveniently” crashed the day my midterm was due for my Visual Experience class.
No joke. I was trying to hurry up and submit it when my computer froze up, the screen went black, this little blue screen popped up stating something had happened to my hard drive, and then it went black and appeared to come up in DOS mode saying that there was a disk error and the computer could not be booted. I tried and tried to get it to work, but it said the same thing.
I called my mom in a panic, after emailing my professor in a panic, who had the reaction that I always had, “Computers conveniently go out in situations like this.” I deserved it. I really did. Anyway, back to my mom. I called her, and we tried to troubleshoot the situation, hoping it was a small fluke and we would be back on the road in no time, but we even got a computer technician who works with Enliven on the phone, and he said, although it sounded like there was no hope, I would have to bring it up for him to take a look at.
In the meantime, my professor emailed me back and agreed to accept the assignment late. I replied gratefully and went to class then went to get my computer checked back home. Turns out, the computer did legitimately crash (who would have thought. I told you I wasn’t lying!), and there was absolutely no hope. The technician said he had never seen a computer completely wipe the drive and not work as mine did. Go big or go home, right?
As a result, I turned in my assignments over spring break, which included a trip to Buckhannon and a speeding ticket (sounds like another Been There, Done That for another time), and was able to get credit for them.
What Can We Learn?
First off, don’t panic. I panicked, and it took away from valuable time I could have spent fixing the problem. Take a couple minutes to identify the problem, five to solve the solution, and then deal with the consequences. Panicking will get you absolutely nowhere. Take it from someone who has had twenty years of learning that the hard way, only to revert back to that same method of panic, no help, fix, realize panic does nothing, and vow never to do it again over and over again.
Have you ever legitimately had your computer crash the day of a big assignment or in the middle of a big project? How did you handle it? Share your story with us!