View of Horizon House from a dorm room in JA
The view from my dorm room, where I woke up in a panic.

I woke up one Thursday and almost screamed when I saw the time on my alarm clock. It was 11:45 a.m., and I had class at 11:50 a.m.

I was going to book it to class but I hadn’t showered, still had to get dressed and needed to get my bearings. Class seemed out of the question. In the next moment, I got an email alert on my phone indicating my recent Religious Celebrity paper submission received a grade. I usually get excited and get an energy boost when looking at my paper grades. I am pursuing a Film Studies and Sociology double major at Conn, two humanities with more writing than breathing. Writing essays is my strong suit—most of the time. I opened the email to find that I did rather horribly on my essay. My bad day had just gotten so much worse.

I brushed off my morning defeats and walked from my residence hall in south campus over to Charles E. Shain Library. I walked in with no intentions, really, but immediately saw my friends crowded around one of the first-floor tables. I poured out my frustrations and they empathized. The comfort my friends provided was great but short-lived as I had a screenwriting class right after. On my walk to class, I ran into my friend Nikki Abraham ’19, and vented to her as well. As a fellow film and sociology major, she understood my plight at missing Dr. Martin’s (Dr. M) class that morning and getting a bad paper grade. She said she’d been there before and that it will get better. I traveled to class and sat next to my friend Issraa Faiz ’19 and aired my dirty laundry once more.

My day started looking up. Between my friends in the library and the friends I encountered on my way to class, my spirits started to lift. On top of that, I had a fantastic screenwriting class where I learned just so much about form and craft. That class always raises me up because it constantly reaffirms my aspirations as a writer. After class was over, Issraa pulled me aside and said that she hoped my day would get better. The little acts of kindness from Camels can really go a long way. My day culminated in a meeting with my fellow bloggers and boss who supported my idea of turning my bad day turned great into a blog post…

I wish I could say I instantly got over my woes but the guilt of missing class was still fresh in my mind. But after all the encouragement I received from my friends and coworkers, I decided to do something about it. I emailed Dr. M first to apologize (but not excuse) my absence. She wrote me back a kind, understanding email. Next, I emailed professor Logan and asked to meet about my Religious Celebrity essay grade. Little did I know she would propose a rewrite later on. Later that day, I reunited with my friends for dinner. As I sat with them, I realized that I can’t fix all the bad days at Conn. But I can get always get support from the Conn community to improve them.