What is the world coming to? We’re bombarded constantly with various tales of morality and… What is the world coming to? We’re bombarded constantly with various tales of morality and goodwill. Told how it’s so much better to give than to take. Instructed to do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Yet amidst all of this, people still manage to do the wrong thing.

Recently – albeit it was my fault and I’m still highly irritated – I lost my USB jump drive.

I’m sure many of those reading this will wonder why I felt this a valid topic for today’s article. People lose things all of the time. Well, cynics, the problem is that somewhere along the line we’ve lost the good ol’ fashioned values we were given in grade school.

Unfortunately for not just me, but the whole campus, nowadays if you lose something of value, you can no longer expect to retrieve it at the end of the day in the school lost and found. No, sir, your loss has become the next man’s gain and as my homies would put it, “you’ve just taken an ‘L’,” or a loss.

Very recently I took an “L,” courtesy of a little absentmindedness and the lack of respect for the honor system that some students on campus apparently possess. You see, I’ve made a routine of checking my e-mail before class, and on this sunny morning, I decided I’d go ahead and work on my article for the upcoming week while I was in the lab – no this isn’t it.

The article you were supposed to be reading is on the jump drive. Now, me being me, I got a little distracted talking to my very beautiful and petite neighbor, and as I rose from the computer and packed my things, I left my jump drive lodged in the computer.

It wasn’t until nearly six hours later, after stopping in another computer lab to send yet another e-mail, that I noticed the drive was missing. Frantically, I retraced my footsteps in hopes that I may retrieve my lost gadget.

Out of breath I reached the spot in which my day had begun, the David Lawrence computer lab. I politely asked the kid behind the desk if anything had been turned into the lost and found, describing to him my silver, about an inch long jump drive with the connecting stringy thing hanging off the back of it. Without so much as a glance in the drawer, he replied with a no and one of those “sucks for you” type looks.

And he was right, I am very much “S.O.L.” That drive contained nearly every ounce of schoolwork that I’d done in the last two years at this university. And while it may not look like much to the person who has it now, it was full of meaningful work that had been and had not yet been completed. Upcoming midterm papers, resumes and important e-mails – and not to mention, my private stash of photographs – have all been lost now.

Are we so inconsiderate of our fellow students that we don’t even consider what may be on the disks and drives that we fail to turn in? As students, we should all understand the frustration that goes into actually doing work. Imagine having to redo that work. Imagine having to redo a whole semester’s worth of work! This is the predicament I find myself in now – unless some angel of a person decides to return my jump drive.

And it’s not just me people. I’ve spoken to numerous friends of mine who’ve had the same thing happen to them here at Pitt. Even our very own fashion columnist has become a victim.

From this day forth let’s band together as one student body and vow to put an end to this now. Everyone has momentary lapses; we all lose things. But as students all working hard towards matriculation from this prestigious university, we must take into account the disservice we are doing one another by not returning lost schoolwork on devices. In many cases, these jump drives not only contain very important pieces of work, they also cost up to almost a $100 to replace, depending on their storage capacity.

As students, we should be the last people holding each other back, and any way you look at it, not returning another person’s work to them is a major hindrance. So let’s put an end to the “L’s” right now and return to the golden days of kindergarten where we lived and napped by the honor system. Together, we can all achieve a “W,” or a win, by helping one another as much as possible.

To abbreviate other three or four letter words in good ol’ fashion slang fun, e-mail Brandon at [email protected]. Oh, and by the way, to the perpetrator out there who stole my ish you can keep the jump drive, just attach my work and e-mail me anonymously.