Since this is a good story, I thought I might have made a post about it before. When my search turned up negative, I knew I had to make a post about it.
This happened toward the end of the fall my senior year at Berkeley, so it was 6 years ago. It was for Bronze Age Ancient Greek history. That was the official title, but the class really covered the Archaic through some of the Classical period. For my paper I chose to write about the people who rowed the Greek ships, the triremes. I also have a picture to share. Below are the books I used for writing this paper as well as my paper for Ancient Greek Religion.
I had a paper due on Monday. Actually, I had two major projects due that day. The other was either a 3D computer model for my Archeology of Pompeii and Herculaneum class or a paper on something for my Ancient Greek Religion class. While I could turn the essay in during class at 1pm, the professor said we could also turn it in to her box in the history office by 5 that afternoon. Since I was still working on the essay and her lectures were usually a complete waste of time, I skipped class.
As I was finished the term paper, I realized it was short on the length. It was supposed to be 10-15 pages. I put in some very long quotes, even if they had nothing to do with my main point. I double spaced the quotes, which you are not supposed to do. After I put the final touches on my essay, it was 8 pages long. It was almost 5, so I had to stop. I went to Derek's computer and printed out my essay. I could see from the green LEDs on Rohit's alarm clock it was 4:59 as it was printing out. Even after it finished printing, it would take me 10 minutes to get to Dwinelle, where the history department office was. As it was printing, Derek walked in the door. He asked me when it was due, and I told him 5 in the history office. Then he told me the history office closes at 4.
Since Derek is a history major, he knows these things. However, I did not know what I was going to do. I thought, my professor is very incompetent. Not only is she bad at lecturing and wastes class time asking students for their ill-informed input, but she doesn't even know when the office closes.
I stapled my essay and hurried to Dwinelle. I hoped the office would be open. By the time I got to the C floor of Dwinelle, I found the office; it was closed. I thought of sliding my essay under the door, but there was something blocking the threshold. I figured it was put there to stop students such as myself from sliding stuff under the door.
Not sure what to do, I decided to walk the halls of Dwinelle. I hoped to run into one of the graduate student readers for the class and give him my essay. While walking around, I remembered commiserating with Alex about the professor a few times. She had a class with the same professor who was terrible in her class as well. I remembered the class went from 5-6:30 in Mulford. I decided my best bet was to go to Mulford and try to catch the professor before that class ended. Before I went there, I decided to walk by the history office one more time on the off chance it was magically open. I walked by and to my amazement it was open! As I stepped inside I talked to a person who told me the office was closed. I politely asked if she could put my essay in the box for my professor. She said she would, but she had never heard of my professor. However, she found her box and I was very grateful. As I walked out of Dwinelle, I ran into Alex. Her class had ended early, so I told her about my paper adventure.
When I got back to my apartment, I decided to do something different. Instead of unlocking the door and walking in as I always did, I decided to enter through the window in the kitchen. My roommates and I had commented how easy it would be to enter the apartment if the window was open (or even if it was closed and locked), so I gave it a try. Except for avoiding knocking down the cans of food near the window, it was easy.
A week later I had a dream. In the dream I got my paper back. In red pen and circled was my score of 57%. When I woke up I was worried because I knew I deserved a failing grade. When I told my roommate Derek about the dream, he told me I must have been remembering it incorrectly. He said I had the numbers mixed up and actually had a 75%. I hoped he was right, but I knew the paper I wrote.
A few days later, the papers were handed back. I got a 75%! I was happily surprised. When I looked over the comments on the paper, there was something written next to one of the long quotes I put in. It asked, "What does this have to do with your point?" I thought, that is a good question.
I ended up getting a B in the class.
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