Everything I've done for the entire school year was on that flash drive. I spent hours each day before, during, and after work gathering resources, designing how-to's, creating content, and organizing information. All of my grades, classwork, homework, and handouts were also on it. Although I kept meaning to do so, I had never gotten around to making a backup of all of this crucial information.
Imagine then, my abject terror upon discovering Monday morning that the flash drive was not on the keychain from which I never remove it. Not only was it missing, but the metal piece which holds it onto the keychain was still attached. It had to have gotten pulled off somehow, but where and when? How could I possibly survive without it if I couldn't find it?
All I could think of as I prayed and searched frantically through every compartment of my work bag was when did I last see it? I had used it on Friday to log student grades as they presented their powerpoints, but I didn't remember noticing whether or not I had it at any point after that. How was I going to find it if I couldn't even narrow down the time frame during which I'd lost it?
It wasn't like this had been just any ordinary weekend. I had moved, on Saturday, from Manhattan to New Jersey. Just thinking about the myriad of possible places where the flash drive could be was nerve wracking.
Friday, after work, I:
@ walked to the train
@took the train down to H&H get bagels for my moving helpers
@ stopped in B&N for the restroom @ took the train back up
@ packed some more boxes
@ walked to the deli and back to get breakfast drinks
Saturday, I:
@ took 3 buses to get to the moving truck in NJ
@ drove back in the truck
@ finished last minute packing
@ put furniture and boxes into the truck
@ stopped to get lunch at a rest stop
@ unpacked the truck into the new place
@ returned the truck
@ drove in a friend's car to olive garden for dinner
@ drove in my brother's minivan to spent the night at his house
Sunday, I
@ went to IKEA in the other car
@ bought furniture and housewares
@ packed the items into the car
@ unpacked car at my apt
@ drove to Walmart
@ picked up the bed frame I ordered
@ drove that back to the apt
@ built my bed frame
@ put the mattress on it
@ made the bed and went to sleep
Monday morning before I discovered the flash drive was gone I commuted into work from my apt for the first time:
@ got up at 4:30, left at 5:30
@ got breakfast at Dunkin donuts
@ took the bus to port authority
@ took the train to the Bronx
@ took a bus from the train
@ walked from the bus
@ climbed three flights of stairs to the computer lab
It would have be impossible to retrace my steps to every single location, certainly not while I was at work, so I just determined to make do without it for the day and hope I could find it at home. Throughout the day, there were times where the flash drive would've helped but thankfully none where it was crucial.
Nonetheless, it was all I could do to keep myself from tears as I thought of more and more files that were on that flash drive. My autobiography PowerPoint that I'd spent so long perfecting as an exemplar, the hours upon hours of grading student work, that folder that contained a set of websites that so wonderfully set up an equivalent fractions lesson and the list went on and on and on.
As I traveled home at the end of what seemed an extraordinarily long day, I thought about the most likely spots to look for it. I'd definitely changed bags, so maybe it could've broken off in the non work purse or in the hall closet where the purse was now sitting. Perhaps it was in one of those last few boxes I'd packed? I tried to remember what they were labeled.
Once home, I emptied both work bags and the non work purse but to no avail as the flash drive wasn't there. I looked in all of the boxes I could remember packing last minute but it was in none of them either. Panic was beginning to set in as I thought of each of my schools and all of my plans for the week which depended on that flash drive.
I prayed about it again and decided to focus on unpacking and building furniture while I thought through what I could do about the next day at work. I definitely needed a flash drive to collect resources and share them with teachers even if I couldn't find mine, so I was going to have to buy a new one before work. Maybe, if I were very lucky I might be able to collect up some of the files I'd had on my flash drive from the schools and teachers where I'd given them.
Unfortunately, it turned it that the Radioshack in port authority and the one by my Tuesday school weren't open yet when I tried them in the morning. I spent the morning attempting to plan without any tools to do so. As soon as it hit close to lunch time I ran out to go get a new flash drive. I immediately copied onto it every file from both the student and teacher share drives. It wasn't all of the work that was on the missing flash drive but it was certainly a good start.
On the way home, I called my friends whose car I'd been in over the weekend. I ranted and raved about the months of work on the missing flash drive and asked if they could check the car for it. Unfortunately, it was not there. I spent the rest of the night trying unsuccessfully to find it as I continued to unpack and build.
Wednesday was my last possible chance to find it. If I didn't by the end of the day, I was going to have to assume I never would. I'd have to somehow plan my Friday classes without the student data or resources I'd already collected. I went through the day in a fog, making do with the new flash as best as I could.
When I got home I called my brother and explained the situation. He didn't remember seeing it on the chain, despite his often photographic memory, but he promised to check both cars once he got home anyway. He suggested I go through step by step and visualize each moment to narrow down when I last had it. He did however, remember someone handing me a flash drive and me putting it into a bag. I vaguely remembered getting handing a flash drive, saying something like"oh that's just my old one" and putting out into the nearest thing I was packing.
I had thought that had happened in in the bedroom and that I'd put it into one of those boxes because I remembered my old flash drive being stored in one of the desk drawers. I'd already checked every one of those boxes on the offshot that I'd confused the old and new one but had found neither of them there. Now he was telling me that hadn't happened in the bedroom at all but in the living room and that it wasn't in a box but a bag.
A tiny flicker of hope started to grow.
Could I have really packed it into bag somewhere? There hadn't been many bags and most contained large,unweildy items that were either soft like my sheets or sturdy like my pots.Neither of these would've been a place for me to put a tiny easily lost or destroyed item such a flash drive. Nonetheless, I was determined to check every last bag that remained unopened.
I dumped out all of the oversized black garbage bags containing my bedspreads, the clear plastic ones with my sheets, the smaller black ones that had my other bedding, and even the supermarket ones that had items I'd recently bought but to no avail. It wasn't there. Just when I was about to give up hope I spied one remaining bag. It was that large, white, cardstock bag with the long pink string handles that I always used to carry random unusually size items. It was not a bag that tied closed. Even if I dared hope that the flash drive had been in there at some point, there was no reason to believe it wouldn't fallen out, or been crushed by whatever objects I happened to have stored in that bag.
Inside the bag was a large open plastic box with other plastic storage containers inside of it. Some of the containers were filled with small desk items like erasers and rubber bands, others were empty stacked containers. There, between the side of one set of stacked containers and a small basket of was a flash drive. I took it out and marveled at it. Sure enough it had the string still hanging from it and was fully intact. It was definitely the missing one. I immediately stopped to thank God.
I couldn't believe I really had it back after all that might've happened to it.Only by God's grace could it have survived the trip from NY to NJ in a flimsy open bag in the back of a moving truck. It didn't get crushed by furniture, fly out when that rickety trick hit every bump in the road, or fall out when I moved the bag into the new place or out of the way to search through boxes. I was just so grateful to be able to retrieve all of that work. I said another thank you prayer as I made a backup of all the files on the flash drive.
