• by Kelly , December 14, 2007

This past week was finals week for Ball State students. A time where every undergrad's blood pressure is at an ultimate high and the end of the semester seems so close, but yet so far away.

Conveniently (and I say this in the most sarcastic way possible) my roommate's laptop crashed. Now, I hope you just gasped, as I did when I heard this happened, because we all know we rely heavily on computers for every aspect of our daily tasks. Every document and file of hers was erased and no longer accessible and... she still had papers to complete and graduate applications to submit.

My other roommate and I offered up our laptops for her to use, but under the circumstances, she realized we had deadlines as well and graciously didn't want to inconvenience us. Fortunately, Ball State's library allows students to check out laptops, for four hours at a time for free. Once the four hours are up, the student must return the laptop or renew it. Granted, this is a convenient concept, but my roommate had to use her laptop for numerous hours and the task of taking it back and renewing eventually became troublesome.

This entire experience made me realize two things: 1) I need to back up ALL my files and 2) what in the hell would I do if my laptop crashed?

Technology can be so convenient, but we rely on it so much (maybe too much) that when it fails us, it's a devastating experience. I understand that nothing is 100% reliable and efficient, but it's still scary because a majority of our daily activities are done electronically and can fail us at anytime. I suppose I will just have to learn how to deal...but in the meantime, send my roommate your condolences.