Computers are a marvel. They assist us in our daily lives to help us watch Netflix, create websites, save pictures, write an essay or article and much, much more. We all know that when we write something on a computer, it is imperative to save it on a hard drive or on a separate document in case something bad happens. However, sometimes we can get too confident in ourselves and do not save our work a million times like we’re supposed to, or we don’t save a backup version and perish when our precious writing deletes. I’ve suffered from this, and I know you all have too, so here the 11 stages of emotion that I believe everyone goes through in their own way when something on one’s computer gets lost or deleted.

1. It’s just the absolute worst.

The first stage of emotion is pure shock. Your body tenses, your eyes grow wide and and your jaw goes slack. When a paper, electronic invitation, a job application or a photo album gets deleted, it is simply the worst. Now obviously, this is a dramatic statement, but isn’t it true? Those unique words, those adorable pictures, and all that precious work disappears before your eyes, and you feel so hopeless. “Control Z” all you want, but it won’t help you, buddy. The work is long gone.

2. For a second you physically feel fire coming out of your eyes.

The second stage is the first phase of anger. You let out a “NOOO!” and you begin to panic. You urgently search for a solution. Check your history to see if you can go back? Check your saved files? Nope. Nothing. Nada. I know there are some of you out there who, like me, are not tech savvy, and you’re also stubborn. This results in not knowing how to un-delete something, and you refuse to get help from others. The anger continues to build...

3. No one can share your pain.

Stage three is the second phase of anger. Your work was so original! Perhaps it was an original poem, an English literary analysis, a photo album that took years to create or simply a short 500 word article; nevertheless, it was yours, and it captured a moment, a phrase, a quote, or a memory that was completely unique. You typed them with your fingers, you snap-shotted the photo and hand-crafted the piece of art, and now it’s gone. At this point, you’ve told at least five other people that this crazy thing just happened. They all show empathy, but it doesn’t make you feel an iota better, because you’ll never see that work again!

4. Why does God hate you?

Stage four is the third and final phase of anger. Throughout all of this, you try to blame everything other than yourself. How and why could this happen? Why me? Does God hate me? You begin to question why you were even meant to write this essay or upload those images in that moment, and question why you have a computer in the first place.

5. You want to kill everyone around you and die.

Now comes stage five: the transition from rage to intense sadness. This is a kind of sadness that makes you either cry, consider slapping everyone around you, or want to die right there in that spot. This mixture of emotion that takes over when important work is deleted.

6. It feels like you lost a child or $1 million.

Stage six is the feeling of loss. When this paper is deleted before your eyes, you feel defeated and empty as if a piece of you has been ripped away, never to be seen again. It is as if your newborn child has been stolen or your newly gained Vegas bucks were jacked from your hotel room overnight! Again--dramatic statement, but both of these instances would be extremely painful and utterly crushing, which is what it is like to lose important information.

7. You take a walk so you don't throw your computer.

Stage seven is the beginning of the cool down period. You’re still livid, but you decide to take a walk because if you didn’t, you would probably chuck your computer out the window. This walk helps you clear your head.

8. You realize that you're okay and you're alive.

Stage eight helps you completely cool down. As if a light switched turned on then off, you take a deep breath and realize that there are worse things in life other than having your work deleted, and you overreacted a bit. You then quickly go over your life’s accomplishments like that award you won once, or that time you were there for a friend and immediately feel loads better. You become a rational human being again, and it still sucks that your work is gone, but life goes on.

9. Your next piece of work is going to be ten times better, guaranteed!

Stage nine is you finally pulling yourself together. You sit back down at your computer, and start over. And hey--the words are flowing like magic! You didn’t forget a thing because all the ideas you lost are still fresh in your head despite the emotional meltdown you experienced minutes ago. You instantly feel better knowing that you got this, and your words and execution of them sound way better than you thought they would.

10. Maybe use Google docs next time?

Stage ten is the you “never-ever-ever-wanting-this-to-happen-again” realization. For next time, you consider writing down your work first, using Google docs, as well as putting it on a hard drive, just in case.

11. We can all learn from failure.

Then you realize that you’ve learned a valuable lesson. We can all learn from this traumatic failure. Deleting precious work is not the end of the world. It may feel like it, but trust me, there are worse things in life. We go on, and we just have to suck it up when something awful like this happens. Also, failure is not a noun, but an action. We can fail, but calling ourselves failures will not solve any problems.