The “Key” to College Life by Brittany

After a long, demanding week of classes, meetings and homework, realizing that it is Friday is one of the best feelings in the world. After my last class on Fridays, I am ready to relax- at least for a few hours. Usually I celebrate the fact that it’s Friday by getting together with many of my friends and going to the bars. It’s something I look forward to all week long.

So this past Friday, I was super excited to go out on the town and forget all my worries for at least one evening. A few friends came over to my apartment; we were all hanging out and having a great time. But when it came time to leave, I turned to lock my door and came upon the terribly harsh reality that my key was missing. I had taken it off of my keychain so it would fit into my wristlet. I remember perfectly putting it in the wristlet a couple hours before, but for some strange reason it was nowhere to be found. And so the incredibly long search began!

My friends that were hanging out with me that night (about five total) helped me backtrack my entire night and search through every single nook and cranny in my apartment. We were all struggling to find that small, gold key so that we could continue with our night of fun. However, that night of fun was never able to happen. During the night I had gone one place other than my own apartment, my friend Amanda’s house. I first ran up to her front door, knocking with all my might, but when no one answered I ran around to the back. Everyone was outside hanging out in the back yard.

So there were my options; the small gold key had to be in one of five places.

1.     My apartment.

2.     Amanda’s front yard.

3.     Amanda’s back yard.

4.     Amanda’s side yard.

5.     Inside Amanda’s house.

And of course anywhere in between our houses- which is about a total of 50 feet of sidewalk and grass.

As the night progressed, my friends and I each took turns looking in the places listed above. But that stupid little piece of metal was proving to be very hard to find. Finally, we gave up. We decided to look in the morning. I barely slept that night; I was not excited to tell my roommates that had gone home for the weekend that I had lost the key. They would either make fun of me or be pretty annoyed. You see, I tend to misplace objects quite often so I was sure they wouldn’t be surprised, just agitated.

Morning finally arrived and I woke with a start. I slowly made my way from my apartment to Amanda’s house, thinking back to each step I might have taken the night before. I looked everywhere- but all that I could find was the occasional pile of dog poop and an assortment of trash. To say the least, I was very mad at myself for losing that tiny golden key. Finally I started to accept the reality of my idiocy and called the office of my apartment complex.

After stopping by the office a few minutes later, I had a lockout key. The problem is that when you live in an apartment or dorm and lose your key, they can’t just give you another key. They have to change the entire lock and give you new keys. The reason this is problematic is simply that they charge you a boatload of cash in order to do so. Later that day, a man came to change the locks for me. I was told it would be about $85; but I was just elated to find out it was going to actually be $126! That was one expensive Friday night.

So for any young Falcons out there thinking it is a good idea to take your small room key off the keychain and placing it somewhere you think is safe and secure, PLEASE THINK AGAIN! The “key” here is to not make the same mistake I did because it will definitely cost you a ridiculous amount of money. Hey, at least my new key is pretty and shiny. It better be for $126.

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