Erin:
Let’s face it, the four years we have at Fairfield are nothing but amazing. However, not every moment in your college career can be perfect. We all know that “uh-oh” feeling when something goes wrong, or just not according to plan. Whether it has to do with friends, classes or personal issues at home, it can be really inconvenient.
I had an “uh-oh” moment my first semester of sophomore year during finals. I was sitting on my bed, furiously typing an essay, when I knocked my laptop off of my lap. Before I knew it, my laptop was on the floor and I could only see a black screen. I paused for a second in disbelief hoping that if I didn’t move, my laptop would magically start working again. Unfortunately, I am not a magician and had no such luck.
When I realized that my laptop was completely fried and I had zero access to all files and documents, I began to freak out (who wouldn’t?). I realized that my only choice was to bring it to the IT desk in the library. When I arrived at the desk and told them my whole saga, they quickly calmed me down and told me that they would figure something out.
Within 45 minutes, the workers had extracted all of my information from my laptop and put it on a flash drive for me. Even though my actual laptop was dead, they still managed to help me as much as they could. I ended up using the 24/7 computer lab in the front of the library for the rest of the semester until I could buy a new laptop.
In retrospect, this may not seem like the biggest challenge, but in the moment it felt pretty terrible. However, there were people on campus that helped me and plenty of resources that let me finish out my semester successfully.
Brynne’s “Key” to Success … or Failure?:
I was put in charge of an important birthday operation one Saturday afternoon during my junior year. I was told by two of my housemates to stay behind at our townhouse, clean up and get ready for our other housemate’s surprise party that would take place later that evening. It seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Stay in the house and tidy up. Well, if I learned anything that day it was this: I can without-a-doubt ruin any task that I’m given, regardless of its simplicity.
I think it really begins here with stubbornness. I am told countless times by parents, friends and even professors to keep my keys in a safe place where I can always reach them. However, then I think to myself, why bother with confidence when you can spend hours looking for your keys before you can go anywhere? I think that you know where I’m going here.
I vigorously washed dishes, put things away and almost (keyword “almost”) even went as far as vacuuming. I had one last step in the process before I could sit down and wait eagerly for my roommates to return from Party City and see what a great job I had done. I just had to take out the trash. Just walk down the street, lift the latch up and throw the trash in. I did that, but while walking back toward the house, I realized the enormous error that I had made. I locked the door, the keys were inside and I was wearing pajamas, stranded outside at 3 p.m.
The “key” lesson here is listen to people when they tell you to keep your keys in a safe place and always take it with you. Tie it around your wrist, keep it on your car keys or tape it to your face. Do whatever works for you because if you don’t, you could be waiting outside in polar bear pajamas for 25 minutes for your roommates to get home, only because you can’t remember where the resident assistant lives and you’re sure as hell not going to walk around like that looking for them.
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