When I went in to take my midterm last Tuesday, I thought I was prepared. I had re-copied all my notes, met with the TA and taken all the practice quizzes. Coming from an English major, that is pretty impressive. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the monumental failure that was waiting for me: the unsuspecting chaos of a midterm gone awry.
When it finally came time to begin, I pounced, flipping my midterm over with the ferocity of a snapping turtle. I immediately tackled the first question and was about to fill in the bubble on the Scantron when it happened. It started in the back of the room: the seemingly innocent statement, “I’m missing a page!” But, I listened with horror as it spread across the room like an infection. “I’m missing one too.” “Yeah mine’s all messed up.” I hesitantly flipped the page of my midterm.
Yikes.
The room erupted into chaos. The professor blankly stared at his TA, who was rushing up and down the aisles to check students’ midterms. The secretary’s face began to sink to the floor. She had copied 106 midterms without the middle two pages. Nobody had a full test.
The secretary began running in and out of the room, each time with a new stack of different color midterms. The first time she entered, the class calmed as the midterms began to be passed out, but why was she bringing in so few copies? The shortage of midterms forced the students into a new rise of panic, as hands shot up like the moles in a whack-a-mole game. The secretary returned with a new stack of midterms, this time pink instead of white.
The professor, alarmed at her attempts to maintain a noncheating atmosphere, decided that now was the time for action.
“No, no, no!” He shouted, flinging his arms in the air, “We don’t have time for dis pink bullshit! Everyone,” he ordered, “just take midterm!”
At this point, the classroom completely lost it. The sight of our Russian professor, a man as stoic as the remnants of the Soviet Union, breaking up under the chaos was too much. A collective rupture of laughter bellowed throughout the room as the TA continued to tend to the rising wave of hands. The day had been lost, the scores rendered generally useless. The class ended with a monotone beep, as the students turned in their mangled midterms.
Looking back on that day, I’ve marked it one of my more enjoyable testing experiences. However, during the whole ordeal I noticed how most people did not find it that funny. The amount of stress in the room was overwhelming. Why was it such a big deal? Sometimes we think that we’re prepared for everything. We get caught up in such a narrow mindset that when reality strikes it takes us by surprise. But it shouldn’t, because in life absurd things tend to happen. Hell, we need them, because they remind us that anything is possible. Nothing can be taken for granted, not even an orderly midterm. When I told my roommate this story, he reflected on his experiences studying abroad in Australia. He said students were lucky if they ever got grades back, and that teachers would regularly not show up for exams. He said it taught him how to put things into perspective, allowing him to understand that things could always be worse.
Life gets in the way of institution. Rules, such as standardized test-taking, try and minimize confusion, but in the end, there are some things that are just beyond us. Although trying to foresee such a disaster can be useful, it is much more important to focus on how you adapt and react to those situations. When in the midst of peril, take a step back and look at things objectively. For instance, if you think you’re going through a rough time, just ask yourself, would this problem be a big deal if, let’s say, an 80-foot spider broke down my door? Absurd, I know, but more often than not you’ll find that what seems to be a massive problem is not that big of a deal. Sure, life can be annoying, but its unpredictable nature is what makes it enjoyable. There are numerous sayings that reinforce this: go with the flow, roll with the punches, ride the wave, etc. It may be clich?, but statements are clich? because they’re true. So relax, take a moment and laugh about whatever’s bothering you. Because, in the end, it is all “pink bullshit.”
Alex Frecon ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in English.
