A Project-ed Fail

While at college I decide to take a graphic design class for an art credit. On the first day, the teacher makes it very clear that we will basically have one project to complete every class, and because of that, missing classes will cause us to fall drastically behind, as we will be expected to make them up, and the skills we gain from the previous project are utilized in the next one. She reminds us of this at least once per week, typically as she’s collecting the completed projects. However, she also lets us know that the computer lab is always available to us outside of class, and she’s happy to answer questions so we can catch up in our free time.

I’m seated next to a particularly obnoxious boy, who spends most of the class talking to his buddy and generally goofing off, no matter how many times I tell him to shut up and do his work. A month into the semester, he stops coming. I figure he must have dropped out once he realized the class actually involved work. I end up having a ton of fun in the class, and the teacher is really nice and helpful. I do miss a project once, causing me to fall behind for a bit, but true to her word I’m able to make it up outside of class and catch up.

A week before the semester’s end, the obnoxious kid comes back, plopping down right next to me. He asks me what he missed since he’d stopped coming. I stare at him like he’s insane, pointing out that he’s been gone for two months. He laughs it off, claiming he can catch up in his free time. I remind him that we had a project to finish each day, each taking over an hour and a half to finish, and we had the class three days a week. So, basically, he had one week to do over two dozen projects.

I get the pleasure of seeing his eyes widen in realization and horror before he sprints up to the teacher, freaking out over how he was going to make up that much work. The teacher, being nice, agrees to give him an extension to turn in all the projects, but given how I didn’t see him again after that, I’m guessing he decided to take the failing grade instead of attempt to cram in a semester’s worth of projects into two weeks.