"You don't appreciate something till it's gone." The age-old expression that no one believes till it comes upon them. We all lose stuff in life; family, friends, pets. Well I lost something last Monday that really put me in a sour mood. When you go to orientation, you get your student ID card. The holy card that you use for printing, meal swipes and access to dorms and buildings around OU. You may cringe at that baby face freshman photo or become flustered when the swipe doesn't work but at the end of the day you can rely on that ID card. Forgot your PID? Pull out your student ID. Want to buy something from that foot truck on top of Morton? Simply have the employee swipe and charge it to your flex points. Your Student ID is that ultimate tool that no college student leaves home without it. So, it pains me that I would accidentally betray my original Student ID to Bobcat Depot. A mistake that haunts me every time I pull out my card.
Okay, we need to backtrack as always. What am I talking about? Well for the last month or so my card wasn't registering my swipes. When I went to print something at the library, the swipe reader wouldn't register my card. On top of that some places like the Bibliotech Café couldn't complete my order and had to manually type in my card number on the back. I was trying to find a cause for my card acting this way. Why was my card acting up while older college kids still used their decrepit freshman ID. I came to the conclusion that the root cause was my dorm last year.
I lived in Ewing on dirty south last year. We all know dirty south for its black mold and on the fritz heating and cooling system but there is another problem with those dorms back there. They don't have the luxury of all the other dorms around campus on simple touch entry. Every time I wanted to enter the dorm, I had to manually swipe my card to enter. That might not sound terrible to some people until it's 17F in the middle of winter and you are swiping your card for the fifth time because the card reader is old and keeps denying you. When I moved to Bryan Hall, the first thing, I noticed was the touch access card reader. It's the little things that count.
Fast-forwarding, once I realized the problem, I decided I should just get a new ID card, so I didn't have to explain to every café employee that they have to manually punch in my number. My supervisor at work told me that I could go to Bobcat Depot and get a new one. I went and they had me fill out a form. Bobcat Depot isn't my favorite store on campus. I can rant about my opinions on it another time. But I had to go, and the process went smoothly. Until they told me to give them my card. Apparently, I couldn't keep my old OU ID card and had to turn it in. I was so confused that the other employee could tell on my face I wasn't understanding what was actually going on. The lady printed me a new card and I paid my stupid $12. I left so hurt and confused- that was my first ID card. That ID card was there on my best days here at OU and my worst. All the prints I've done. All the meal swipes. I was literally just so sad. AS I walked away from Baker on my way to dinner, I felt like I was in a movie. I had to turn around. I had to get my old card back.
It didn't work. They explained to me that if I was to return my new card I would simply have a deactivated card and I wouldn't be able to access any of the buildings. Which is just stupid because now looking back on it if they were going to deactivate the old card anyway why make me return it and not give it back. It's not the DMV. At the DMV I understand, you need to renew your license and a false one can get you into trouble. But it's my old student ID card. I can't go to bars and show the bouncer to let me in. Nothing on campus is restricted. And it's the same photo from my old one. I would've fought harder, but I could sense their supervisor was starting to not like me.
I turned around and left. I haven't been able to look at my ID card since that day. At first, I was angry at it. But now I've eased up. That ID card didn't get asked to be made. And maybe we can have a new bond and create new memories since the old card had a lot of baggage with it. In the end, I really wish I was able to keep the old card. They probably threw it away and I guess I have to move on. Just maybe, this time I will appreciate my ID card a little more.
