A few years ago, at the end of my Junior year of college, I needed to ship some stuff home before summer break. The campus' mail room was closed on the weekends, and I had my last final of the year that night at 5:30, so on Friday around 1 o'clock I decided to throw my stuff in a box, and bring it over to the mail room.
In putting all of my books (including my 1800 page academic Hebrew bible) in a box, I somehow did not expect that the box would be really heavy. Like, so heavy I would carry it for a few feet before having to set it down to catch my breath. And I had to carry it to the opposite side of campus to get to the mail room.
But this isn't the first time I'd made pretty much this exact mistake. The year before, I needed to get my stuff to a storage locker to store it for the summer. I didn't have a car, so I had called an uber to take us there, and this time I had two plastic tubs. For some reason I had the idiotic idea of putting all of my bedding into one, leaving all of my books and heavy stuff for the other.
I needed to cross campus to the uber pickup location with these two storage containers. Also I had already ordered the uber, I had 15 minutes to get there. This immediately got worse when, before even leaving my dorm, I dropped the heavy container, which cracked. Like liberty bell cracked.
I eventually managed to get outside, but I clearly was not going to make it in time for the uber that I had ordered. I kept having to stop, and run after papers that had slipped through the massive crack in the container with all of my papers in it.
But I was saved when a fellow student saw me struggling, and offered to help. I'd never talked to that guy before, I don't even remember his name. I was so overwhelmed with relief that the rest of that journey is a blur. But through the sheer kindness of this stranger I ended up getting to the pickup spot on time.
Anyways, back to Junior year, this time I, at the very least, had time on my side. I could stop every couple of feet, and catch my breath. But I had one big obstacle this time: the road. My dorm this year was across the street from campus, and separated by a 4-lane-street. I positively shlepped the box across the street, and onto the main part of campus.
After that I needed a bit of a break, so I checked my phone. I had a notification. From my professor. Half an hour ago. He said "Hi Ryan. Is everything ok? The final exam for COMP251 is happening right now."
I had misremembered my exam time. It wasn't in 4 hours. It had started 45 minutes ago.
This actually wasn't the first time I had misremembered when a final was. Last semester I'd received an email from my neuroscience professor telling me to get to the final. But when I made it there half an hour late, I still managed to finish in time.
My mind immediately starts racing. Can I just leave the box here in the middle of the path? Can I carry it back to my dorm? No, I'm already half way to the mail room. The only way out is through.
Now I was frantically trying to get the box to the mailroom. But it wasn't any lighter, and I was already super tired. But once again I was saved by a stranger's kindness. A dad saw me, and offered to lend me a cart he was using to help his daughter move out of her dorm. I thanked him, and bolted to the mail room. It turns out wheels make heavy things really easy to move.
Once I got to the mail room, I tried explaining that I had a final, and asked if I could leave the box there for a bit, but the woman working there stared at me like she thought I had a bomb in the box. Years earlier a frat had been operating a drug ring out of the mail room, so she probably thought that I was trying to use the mail room as some sort of drop site. So I had to send out the package then.
I did my best to fill out the shipping forms as quickly as I could. I was slowed down of course by this being the year that my new years resolution was to be left handed, so I could only write so fast if I wanted to be more legible than a kindergartener's crayon writings. But as soon as I was done, I ran the cart back to the dad who lent it to me, and dashed for the computer science building where my final was.
I ended up showing up to my final an hour late drenched in sweat. My teacher was super kind about it and offered if I needed extra time or anything that I could, and asked if I needed anything.
I ended up finishing that final early. Left handed, I'll remind you. I'm a fast test taker.
There are probably a lot of lessons that you could learn from all this. IDK. As for me, I never missed a final again.
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