You don't know what you have until it's gone.
For weeks I had been telling myself to back up my documents on a hard drive... yet, I kept putting it on my "to do" list everyday, but the funny thing was....I found it on my list everyday...with no checkmark by it.
Let's just say today, I took the 10 minutes out of my day to finally do it. Why you ask? My laptop went missing at 2:30 this afternoon. Did you just get a panic feeling just thinking about it? Well, that doesn't even begin to describe the feeling until it is actually you. Trust me.
I never realized how dependant I was on one small device...all of a sudden I was wondering how I would ever type up that 6 page paper that was worth 15% of my grade...or how I would register for Benchmark II without any of my documents from my past classes...and all of a sudden all of my notes I had been taking, were instantly gone. All because of one device gone missing.
The funny thing was, Facebook didn't even cross my mind once while in panic mode.
I was supposed to be meeting a friend for dinner when I realized it was missing. I started to panic...I went as far as checking under my bed....With the help of my amazing friend I started to retrack my every move of the day. I remembered that it was in a classroom...long story short....my friend drove me to that classroom and it was pitch dark and locked. A helpful professor near by said I would have to wait an hour for a janitor to arrive, because she didn't have a key either. Have you ever had to wait an hour for something while panicking!?!? What did you do?
I called my mom.
I honestly don't know where I would be without my mom. People say I'm a spitting image and I proudly agree. She's the person I can go to for anything & instantly feel like everything will be okay. Let's just say I'm truly blessed. She quickly had me sucking up my tears & thinking positive. My friend hugged me and insisted we go to get some chocolate while we wait. (How did she know that was the next thing to make me feel better) Another part of the story cut short......my friend graciously bought me chocolate & we found the caring janitor who opened the door and there.......right where I had placed it.......was my "you don't know what you have until it's gone" laptop!!!!!
I can now say I've kissed a laptop.
I instantly called my parents to celebrate. (If I were them, I would have gotten rid of me a long time ago) ;) So what's the real point of the story? At the time I was panicking and frantically planning out how I would explain it to my teacher...but now I realize that if I wouldn't have gone through that, I may never have "checked" the hard drive off of my "to do" list& something worse could have happened. I may never have realized that even if I cause my parents stress....they are going to be here through anything. And lastely, I never would have seen just how great my new friend is. She had homework, she had her own "to do" list... but she promised she wouldn't leave until we found my laptop.
There is no better feeling than knowing people care. I am one who always wants to help & give back. Later on that night that same friend got a phone call saying one of her family members was sick. I can honestly say that before tonight, I would not have really known how to empathize with her (i've never been very good at that) but after the crazyness of the day, I knew that she needed a hug & someone to set their homework aside & just be there. & that is exactly what I did.
Moral of the story: Back up your documents, don't leave your laptop anywhere, & count your blessings.
