CRASH

Picture this: You're a senior in your last quarter of college and it is a Friday night. The metropolis your college is so conveniently located in is booming with fun activities and happy people just looking to unwind from a stressful week. However, you are not one of those people. You are a diligent and dedicated student, who is confined to your room with a looming 15 page paper at the top of your "To Do" list. Even though it is a Friday night, and you can hear music blaring from neighboring houses and the laughter of your peers, you have your thinking cap on and totally working. You are on a roll and just busted out six pages of your demanding assignment in only two hours. As you smile and start to think "dang...at this rate I may be able to be social tomorrow night," a giant window pops up and begins blinking bold red words like, "MALICIOUS VIRUS," "CORRUPTED PROGRAMS," and "38 VIRUSES TOTAL." As you scream like a two-year-old who just got a piece of candy ripped away from them, you frantically try to correct the problem. You are power poking every key, pounding on the power button, and slamming your flash drive into the side of your laptop while crossing your fingers your six pages will save. All of the sudden, you are staring at a completely black screen. You just experienced a computer crash, and unfortunately, for the first time in four years, "you" was me.

I am not going to lie, when I saw that black screen I was instantly infuriated. I immediately called my computer engineering friend to see if he could fix it. However, it just so happened that this week all the senior engineering majors had to take this eight hour Fundamentals of Engineering exam on Saturday. My friend told me, "Ellen, I love you, but not that much. I'm cramming for the rest of the night, taking an eight hour long test tomorrow, then no offense...I'm power drinking for the rest of the night." I was disappointed, but understood. Turns out, I lost my paper and my bibliography, which meant I had to go back through my 30-50 page long sources and find the one sentence I used in the paper.

In case this happens to you, and you somehow miraculously get your computer to deviate from the eerie black screen, check out this site. There are some instructions on how to rid your computer of the evil viruses.

This was one of the most stressful events I have ever had happen to me. Needless to say, I spent the rest of Friday attempting to get back to the point I was at before my computer crashed. I reached the four page mark, spent Saturday night working on it, and the majority of Sunday. However, it is done, and I have never felt so relieved.