Double the Tears!

What a relief to be done with finals! I’m sure I cannot convey exactly how miserable the past month has been, but I am sure going to do my best. Have you noticed I haven’t been able to write much of anything this semester? Well, In the past month, I have had to complete the following:
· 2 twenty-minute presentations
· 1 five-minute presentation
· 35-page group project paper
· A 7-10 page paper on consumer-driven healthcare
· A 5-page paper on Enron
· A 5-page website analysis {www.revolutionhealth.com}
· A 5-page business analysis {Hospital Corporation of America}
· Access Project
· Writing up a Request for Proposal
· 2 scholarship essays
· 3 exams
· 1 quiz
· 4 finals

Additionally, I have had the following non-academic activities in the past month:
· Two out-of-state weddings
· Purchased a new(ish) car


And all this was complicated by a corrupted flash drive that lost ten days worth of work for me. Believe me, there have been times when I have wanted to burst out into spontaneous sobs! Sharon and I have spent more time in the library at school outside of class time in the past month than we have ever before in one semester. Friday nights, Saturdays—there we were.

When I told Mom this afternoon that I was finally finished with finals, she said, “Praise the Lord!! I am so finished with finals!!!”

Speaking of data loss… The girl who sits behind me came into class on the day we were to hand in our papers and started telling us about her awful night. She said she had almost completely written the whole thing (the night before it was due) when there was a massive power surge, and her computer was shut down. Unfortunately, she had not saved the document, and she had to start all over from scratch!! OUCH! She literally had to pull an all-nighter. She said around 4 am, she just started crying and crying. She never went to bed. She was really depressed about her paper. It’s just not as good the second time around.

I thought I was going to have to rewrite my website analysis when my flash drive corrupted itself. I had saved it, but for whatever reason, the folder it was in saw fit to deny me access based on corruption. I thought I was going to have to have a quick cry too.

I downloaded some software that said it could restore the files, but it wanted to charge me $50 to do so. I was about ready to do so because I surely couldn’t afford the time it would take to rewrite it. Then I all of a sudden had a brain tickle, and I thought I might’ve sent it myself via email the night I wrote it. I looked into my “From Me” folder, and LO and BEHOLD! There was that paper—sitting there in my Inbox.

The relief that flooded over me was immediate, and I began thanking the good Lord above. I don’t typically make a habit of sending my files to myself via email as a method of backing up, but for some reason, I saw fit to send that particular one. I think I might’ve had a guardian angel in action that night.

The guy that sits next to me in that same class had his own set of troubles with his paper. He is a computer guru and saves his files directly onto an external hard drive. So what are the chances of your brother’s girlfriend coming into your apartment and spilling Pepsi all over the hard drive? I don’t know, but that’s what happened, sure enough. And he had to rewrite his whole paper too.

So Emily, Adrian, and I had quite the time of sharing our stories of eGrief. I mean, writing a paper is bad enough the first time around—but twice??? That’s double the sweat and double the tears!

How long has it been since YOU backed up?