Samantha Lee, a junior at the University of Georgia, has gone viral on Twitter after sharing her story about the meatball that sabotaged her exam.
remember in high school teachers would be like "your college professors will not tolerate this kind of behavior" pic.twitter.com/D183VnnfFS
— slee (@samanthlee16) July 15, 2020
It seems that she was eating a meatball sub while taking an economics exam, when a meatball fell out of her sandwich and hit the keyboard, causing it to close the page and prematurely exit the test.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Lee said that she was “more worried about [her] sandwich and computer … that either one of them would be ruined.” Well, if it had ruined the sandwich it would certainly have been a catastrophe. She then saw that the meatball had “hit some sort of escape button and closed the entire browser”, and that her score had come back at 39%.
Lee decided to email her professor and explain what had happened. “Something hit my computer and caused it to submit the test when I had less than half of the questions answered. By something, I mean a meatball that had tragically fallen onto my keyboard as I was taking the exam,” she wrote, attaching the Snapchat she sent her friends as “primary evidence”.
Lee took a shot, asking “I completely understand that a falling meatball is no excuse for the failing grade on this exam,but is there any possibility of retaking this test?” To her surprise, Professor Lastrapes replied the next morning.
“Well, this is certainly a new and unusual excuse for a low score! But for that reason it seems unlikely you’ve made this up,” he wrote, letting her know he’d extended the deadline until midnight that night. Additionally, it seems Professor Lastrapes has a sense of humour of his own, writing “I would recommend you take the test either before or after dinner. :-)”
People have been replying to Lee’s tweet, sharing their own experiences with email mishaps and witty professors.
So, what have we learnt from Lee’s story? ‘There’s no harm in asking’? ‘Meatballs are dangerous’? If anything, it’s to not to eat during an exam, or at least pick a safer food… popcorn, perhaps.
Has anything like this happened to you?
Let us know in the comments below!