We've all been there before. You spend three hours writing the perfect article. It's on Microsoft Word, so you can track your word count. You've done all of your research, followed all of the  writing tips, and written quality content. You're wrapping up the last paragraph, very focused on your work. You've worked very hard, sitting on your chair for hours, and you've finally finished!

Not giving a second glance, you decide to take a quick break before editing your work and posting. An hour later, you come back, equipped with energizing snacks and ready to edit. You swivel in your chair to face your computer. The horror, the absolute terrifying feeling hits you a moment later, right where it hurts. Your laptop died and you didn't save your work.gif-when-you-dont-save-your-work

The same thing happened to me, but it was in 6th grade, I believe -- I was 11 or 12. I was doing a project on the Earth, and I was really excited about it. Keep in mind, I was extremely antsy back then (sometimes I still am), and it was very hard to put me on a chair for very long. However, this time, I was very intrigued by the research project I was doing. I looked up the information, put what I learned into my own words (no plagiarism!), and formatted it into the PowerPoint.

I took extra care to find good fonts, matching colors, and pictures available for reuse. I truly worked hard on this project, by myself, and I was very happy with my work. About three and a half hours later, I finished. I was pleased, and decided to go do something else. Well, it turns out that I didn't save my work, and my laptop was not connected to it's charger. Since it was a very old laptop, it just stayed on -- until it died.

A few hours later, I happily hummed and skipped up the steps to email my work to my teacher. I opened the door to my room, and I was horrified when my laptop screen was black and there was no familiar black cord. I screamed, and called for my mother. My dad and my mom probably spent a while after that trying to see if my work could be restored. Now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense, because they definitely had better work than to help my ignorant self. I still thank them for their efforts.

In the end, I needed to remake the presentation. It wasn't as skillfully constructed or aesthetically pleasing, but it was still  more than enough to earn the grade (quality over quantity). To this day, I make a few saving mistakes, but nothing too enormous. Google drive is where it's at! I was showing google drive to my mother the other day, and her reaction on realizing that she didn't need to continuously press ctrl+s was astounding -- I wish I recorded it! But either way, losing several hours of work burned me quite a bit, so I always make sure to save my work!