7th post by MM: Can happily declare that I am happy with myself, for once. Normally, I wouldn't have been so efficient, but today, I managed preparing for an essay with 3 days to spare! It's actually quite an accomplishment, because I'm the biggest procrastinator who gets things done past midnight into the early mornings of the due date for the task. I'm quite surprised, but I definitely encountered some quite traumatic difficulties throughout this process. One, I had the bad luck of losing my laptop, which is bad in itself but more importantly, for the content it contained which would be especially important for a student in their final year of high school. I oddly maintained a positive outlook, and was almost 80% sure I would get it back. It required a password login, and plus, it was a school laptop, small, heavy and ugly, and based on my observations, would be returned promptly to me by the nice strangers that I see around the bus stop where I lost it. To no avail. I did not get it back and had to accustom to the shock of writing an essay without the premeditated advantage of 3weeks of notes taken - deep, eloquent analysis that would benefit me immensely. However I hadn't that luxury anymore. So I asked my classmates for their notes (and why should they provide me their self written ideas and interpretation), but nonetheless, I was able to retrieve a copy and a good analysis for me to extract from. The former copy? It was shoddily done, and I would only be able to use 30%. Notes that are depressingly self-explanatory that I wouldn't have trouble doing quickly myself. But still, I began. The second resource proved to be very useful, and it comforted me in knowing I had something. But it was an analysis, I would have to write specific points myself. Now, some may say, this is meant to be an entirely self-created task, why don't you stop being dependent on notes that you didn't write yourself, (I wrote most, with the benefit of my helpful teacher who sought high, my notes were then worthy of use) and well okay, you can do it your way, avoiding any sort of plagiarism because you would be able to understand it better and it would flow naturally. Well I'm sorry but I don't possess such a skill to just bluntly start writing, I need the critical ideas layed out and presented to me, only then can it bolster me to consider upon that level and expand on it, all so I can regurgitate as much of the 'smart-sounding' theory behind my assertions into my essay as possible. I don't care for what's moral, I do what's best for me, to get the best marks. And plus, it does no one harm. So there I had, my somewhat supportive analysis, but I was still rolling at a snail pace in terms of constructing an argument to my pleasing. I was on my iPad on Word, when I was shuffling and compiling the batch of the notes (the useless first copy) that I deleted my current work process, and all the preparing of the ideas that I had done. I sat there, the reality of this sinking in, my face contorting into one of misery as I freaked out and cursed in real life, exiting the app and opening it hoping by some technical error it'd stupidly appear. But of course, it deleted proficiently. I was bawling a bit now, wailing as my emotions took over as I look online for solutions. Someone had success and discovered it in their Onedrive recycle bin. I foolishly downloaded the app even though I had no chance, and to my misery, couldn't even locate the stupid bin. I went back on to word, frantically flipping around the tabs and the options and clicked help. Oh the sadness. Got linked through to a technical helper who typed slowly to my annoyance and eventually said they couldn't help. Well fuck. I went back on to word fiddling with the sync with Onedrive. Didn't even let me log in due to server error. Was really hating the hit/miss aspect of technology at this point and tried logging to Dropbox. Well that worked, trust newbie Dropbox over a well established Microsoft. I was actually sobbing now, seeing my tear-stained face in the reflection of the iPad and not really registering the shock of losing all my hard work, again. I start to see random files syncing from Dropbox and holy god I see my, MY own compiled document for my essay. I used to complain of Dropbox always syncing my changes made to documents as I wouldn't need it on another platform anyways until I wanted to share it, and had struggled to find where I can turn off automatic syncing. Thank God I lost the patience to find it. Dropbox had also synced a very important doc which contained stuff I'd need for another test coming up. I was intensely greatful, scrolling through the notes I know so well,MY notes, oh the euphoria and affection I felt towards my notes. I would have been over the moon if Dropbox had sent my large, accumulated collection of unfamiliar words; my word bank and my other files over but it's okay, already intensely grateful for providing me my own notes. So now equipped with more than enough notes, I set to work. Had some trouble choosing what points I'd include (had around 60) and eventually narrowed it down to 6. I have now completed 5, and would finish the 6th soon. So there you have it, my traumatic journey with a happy ending. I guess that my optimism for the future wasn't on getting my laptop back, but a definitely agreeable compensation for the loss. And who knows, maybe whoever took it will decide to return it soon! I hope you, dear reader will share my optimism this coming holidays, and may you have a wonderful, special Christmas! All the best, MM. :) 5601