I like to think of myself as a put-together person, but evidently, that is a lie. Clearly, I’m not cut out to be an adult. Since starting college, I have been without my student ID and/or keys and have been locked out of my room four times. This has never happened to me before college. I’m not very forgetful, and I’m quite responsible, so why is this happening? Adulthood is taking its toll on me and putting me through stressful, humiliating moments that make me feel utterly stupid and helpless. And the worst part? Most of these were my own fault, and there’s no one I can be angry at except myself.

But part of being an adult is picking yourself up and moving on, and what better way to do that than to write about all my lowest moments and compile them together for everyone to laugh at? So here are all the times I forgot my ID and got locked out, ranked in order by how stupid I felt.

4. The day after spring break

Evidently, I was not ready to come back from spring break this year. I was not ready for classes or schoolwork or, apparently, regular life. On the day after spring break, when classes resumed, I thought I’d had everything put together and was ready to tackle the day. I was not. I had all my notebooks and pencils, but I forgot something very important. I finished a class, was standing in line at Newcomb, started to look through my backpack, and realized I’d forgotten my ID in my room. Not only that, but I’d left my whole wallet, which meant I couldn’t get myself lunch. Of course.

So I sat and suffered until my last class was over, and I could head home at the end of the day. However, I live in an upperclassman dorm which requires your student ID to get into your apartment, so I was really worried about getting into my own home. Luckily, my roommate was on the same bus home, and she, unlike myself, was not dumb enough to forget her ID, and we were able to get in without a problem. And yes, I did eventually get myself something to eat.

3. Waking up my roommate

This was just a nothing day. One day a week in my schedule, I have two classes in the morning, and I’m finished before 11am. On this particular day, I finished my classes, and I figured I’d grab a sandwich before I went about my day. I stood in line, submitted my order, and reached into my backpack...only to realize I did not have my wallet.

So I did the logical thing: I walked out without a word. I hopped on the bus back home, thinking, “Crap, how am I going to get back in? What am I going to do?” I was freaking out. Did I even leave my wallet in my room or was it lost somewhere? I texted my roommate asking her when she was coming back home, but I got no reply. So, when I got back, I had to call Housing to send someone over to let me in. As someone who likes to have complete control over her life and not make mistakes, I felt like a complete failure.

And then, I got a response from my roommate. Turns out she was inside sleeping, and I’d woken her up. So not only was I a failure, I was a terrible roommate with horrible guilt. And I had to call Housing again to tell them I’d gotten in. And yes, my wallet was right there on my desk. A great day for my pride.

2. My roommate locks me out

Out of all my blunders, this was the only one to take place last year. I was a first-year, I had a different roommate, and I lived in the old dorms. Now, if you lived there, you know that your ID gets you into the building, but you have to unlock the door to your room with a physical key. My roommate and I had an agreement that we kept the door unlocked if we were in there, and the only time we locked the door was if we were both gone.

One day, we were both in the room, and I went to the bathroom. It’s just down the hall, and the doors didn’t lock on their own, so I brought nothing with me. Not my phone, my ID, or my key - I didn’t have a reason to. But when I finished, I came back and found the door closed and locked. I was locked out without anything to help me. Evidently, my roommate had left, thought I was gone, and had locked the door behind her. I was in complete distress. My RA wasn’t in her room, so I was feeling completely helpless. I had no idea when my roommate was coming back, and I was fully prepared to just lie on the ground in front of my room until she returned.

Then I remembered that the key room for the old dorms happened to be in the basement of my building. However, since I didn’t have my ID, I’d have to bring someone with me to vouch for my identity. I had some friends in the building, so I went down to their room praying that one of them would be there. And thank my lucky stars one of them was, and he was kind enough to come with me while I got a replacement key and unlock my door again. There’s no helpless feeling quite like being locked out of your own room.

1. Losing my ID entirely

It was the dead of winter, a few days before break. That day, I had an early-morning exam, and I did not want to be late. Of course, on this particular day, the buses decided they were just going to not be running properly because that’s just what UTS does on exam days. In a rush, I decided screw this, and I hopped in my car and sped to my exam.

A few hours later, my exam was over, and I thought everything would be fine. Oh, how wrong I was. I had lost my ID again. I backtracked my steps to where my exam was, and I looked in my car. Not there. My roommate was in the middle of an exam, so I had to call Housing to let me inside. I sat outside in the bitter cold for about twenty minutes waiting for them to let me in, only comforted by the knowledge that my ID would be inside my room waiting for me when I got in.

Except it wasn’t. Housing let me inside, and I looked all around my room, but I couldn’t find my ID. To this day, I still don’t know where that ID is. At that point, I was on the brink of tears, but I pulled myself together, got in my car, and drove over to O'Hill to get a new ID printed. Thankfully, the ladies in the office were very nice and helpful, and getting the new ID went off without a hitch. But it was humiliating for me. And the thought of it happening in the first place, compounded on it happening on the day of my hardest exam that semester, was enough to make me want to burrow under my blankets for about a week.