One email can bring lots of hope to procrastinators everywhere

At this point, everyone has heard the saying chivalry is dead. Honestly, I don’t know whether that’s true, but I have some better news. Regardless of what the boys are up to today, I can affirm that humanity, at least, is still very intact.

I learned this in the middle of procrastinating on my course work. I know we all do it, but this was a new level of crunch time. Let me set the scene.

The time was 9:05 a.m., and I had a miniature essay due by 11:59 p.m. that night. Plenty of time, I thought, which was why I started my assignment the day it was due. Then I realized the prompt came from the textbook I did not have yet.  

There’s nothing like the feeling of seeing “Turn to chapter one and answer the questions on pages 14 and 15 to complete this assignment,” knowing perfectly well the only place you can turn to for help at that point is the heavens.

I went into an immediate panic. Should I call my mom or Amazon, the company that I rented my book from? Why wasn’t it here? Where did my roommate say she was going today?  

I was completely alone, and since this was an online class, there were slim chances that I would be able to get a hold of any of the other more than 100 screen names I have seen in the discussion posts.  

After all, I was probably the only one who waited until today to get my work done anyway.

Or so I thought.

I was already past the point of desperation, so I took a risk of annoying my entire class and sent out a mass email for help. I went through the roster, selected every name and added them to my send list. Then, I typed out my message, asking if anyone could take a picture of their book and send me the questions we had to answer.

After 20 minutes of anxiously refreshing my inbox with no responses, I realized I had to face the facts: I was screwed. I mentally accepted that I would have to take the loss and hoped I would do better in the future.

I moved on to the other things I had to do that day and got to work. It was only 10 a.m., and the day was far from over. However, once noon hit and the rest of the world woke up, a miracle happened.

I got not one, not two, but four responses. Multiple people sent me the questions for my assignment, and I was able to save my future and get back on track. I couldn’t believe it.

Not only did people take the time out of their busy day to help me, but they even attached nice messages. One student gave me her number for future reference, just in case I needed anything else.  

These kind words and considerate actions proved to me that humans still knew how to be good. I was worried about contacting a bunch of strangers, but after so many emailed me back, I realized we were all in this together. We were all classmates, and mine were the very best kind.

By helping me when I needed it, they showed me that compassion was still very much alive. All it took was a couple of emails, but what can I say? A little kindness goes a long way, especially when a Category 5 hurricane is so nearby.  

Victoria Fortier is a UF journalism sophomore. Her column appears on Fridays.