Sleep is important. And even while most of us understand what healthy sleep patterns are, fewer are adamant about sticking to them. Usually, the sleeping problem people experience is not getting enough. Other times, however, it's getting just a little too much sleep. Take it from these people, who recently shared their worst "I overslept" moments.
65. Blame It On Apple
I woke up with the alarm clock, hopped out of bed, showered, and headed to work. Walked into the office, cheerily greeted everyone with the usual "Good morning", then became aware that everyone was staring at me, including a very angry looking boss who demanded to know where I had been all morning.
Turned out that my phone had, for no particular reason, changed the time by a couple of hours. It was only my genuine and completely obvious astonishment, and ability to show the time on my phone, that meant that I didn't get in trouble. I was so confused.
Pixabay
64. Days Of The Week
Man, I woke up noticed it was lighter than it should have been. Looked at the clock. It's 7:30 AM. I have to be at work at 8. It's a 45 minute drive and the boss said next time I'm late I'm gone! Jump out of bed, running around grabbing my stuff and getting dressed. Skip the tooth brushing. They'll be plenty of time of for that if I'm fired. Hop in the car and tear off.
I'm doing probably 10-15 above the speed limit. Gotta keep an eye out for cops. Then I realize there is way less traffic than usual. That's odd. At this point I'm 15 miles or so into my trip. Should I call the boss and give some excuse? No, he'll see through it. So I just try to keep this pace. Should be easy, there is barely any traffic.... Where is everyone? Look at my watch, it's 7:50 AM.... Saturday morning. I don't work Saturdays.
63. Your Loss
I got selected for the so-called Honours Program for excellent students in my first year of university. Lots of nice trips to several countries in Europe were about to happen, all paid for by school. I was doing a great job, until the day I overslept and missed a (not even important) meeting with a teacher. They woke me up with a phone call and I got 'fired' from the program immediately.
Jen Batler
62. Day Becomes Night
I'll never forget my first Grade 9 exam. I took a bus to my school and I was frequently late, or just absent altogether. So I was really worried I would sleep in and miss an exam. That day, I wake up and look at the clock. It's like 1:00 (exam started at 8:30). I started freaking out and getting ready as quick as possible, until I realized the exam would've been well over, so there was nothing could do. I laid back down, defeated.
Then I decided to call my dad and tell him about his disappointment of a son. That's when I heard his phone start ringing in the house, while he was supposed to be at work... Then it finally dawned on me. I went to the living room, looked out our tiny window (basement apartment) and it was still pitch black. It was 1 am.
61. Here Comes The Organist
The worst was when I had a 10 a.m. Saturday wedding, for which I was the organist. The power had gone off the night before, so my alarm clock was off-schedule and I overslept. When the phone rang, it was the minister, playing "Get Me to the Church on Time," from the musical "My Fair Lady."
Fortunately, he knew the power had been off, and said he'd delay the wedding until I arrived. Even the couple understood and gave me a "bonus" afterwards for racing to the church without coffee, breakfast or shower to play "Here comes the Bride."
Pixabay
60. Delta Does It Again
I had lost my phone the night before and had a flight at 7 am. It was important that I caught this particular flight because I was catching a 5-hour ride from a friend as soon as I landed. I had to use my roommate's iPad as an alarm. It didn't go off but I luckily woke up with a minuscule chance of catching my flight. I had to call an uber with my roommate's iPad (I was originally planning on taking the train to the airport) and then hope to find the uber outside because I couldn't leave the apartment with the iPad. I got to the airport 7 minutes before my gate closed. I sprinted through the terminal. I got to the gate as the door was closing... just so the jerks at delta airlines wouldn't let me in.
59. Saved By The Law
The final for my Justice course. I woke up with about 10 minutes left to the exam period.
Fortunately for me, something had happened at my home (about 30 minutes away) which caused my mother to call the cops. I was able to use this as an excuse and "hurry" from home to the exam, and they then let me take it the next day.
Photo by Buro Millennial from Pexels
58. Ouch
A close friend's funeral. I knew when and where it was, had my alarm set and had my clothes picked out but worked late the night before and had trouble dozing off so I popped a few Tylenol PMs and went out like a light. Next thing I know I wake up and it's WAY past the funeral. I still feel terrible about it to this day.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
57. The Marathon Sleeper
Mother's day. I had all these things planned. Went to sleep, woke up 17 hours later to a family member knocking on my front door to check up on me. My phone had died and no one was home to wake me up. No idea why I had slept that long. I didn't even stay up late. Only happened once. So freaky!
56. Punching The Clock
My final. It started at noon. I woke up and checked the time it was 2. I was super ticked at myself so I got out of bed and punched something. That something was my dorm room window. It shattered and made a pretty nasty laceration in my arm. I went to the ER, stitched it up and asked the Dr. for a note stating I was there that day. Got the note, showed it to my prof + the laceration, he gave me a B. Not bad.
55. Curtain Call
Senior year high school pulled an all nighter editing together my final project for film class (friend and I wrote and shot a movie), finished just in time to get to school that morning to turn in the project and take the final exam.
Went home and fell asleep. . .right through the spring musical. I was a part of the chorus and that was a big part of our grade I believe, and all my family was there. I was blissfully asleep until my mom got home wondering where I had been.
Photo by Monica Silvestre from Pexels
54. Still Surprised
I overslept my surprise birthday party. Friends tried to downplay my birthday and just said something like "come over around 7 and we'll just sit around and have some beers." I turned my phone off and took a nap beforehand and didn't set an alarm because I figured "if it's just a few buddies hanging out and drinking, and I oversleep, it won't be a big deal."
It was a big deal because I was an hour and a half late, and there were about 50 people at this surprise party. Half of them left before I even got there. Phone was off so they couldn't even call to wake me up.
Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels
53. Never Suspected
I grew up in an isolated rural part of an otherwise suburban county. My bus ride to high school was 90 minutes each way, so I'd typically spend the time doing homework or sleeping. I'd slide down in the seat, wedge my knees up against the seat in front, pull my hoodie up, and let the gravel roads rock me to sleep. Of course, when this happened, the bus driver couldn't see me.
One time I fell asleep, and he must not have hit the pothole that normally shook me awake. He didn't realize I was still on, so he headed home for the day. It wasn't until he PULLED INTO HIS DRIVEWAY AND SHUT OFF THE BUS that I woke up. He lived 45 minutes away from me.
Longest, quietest ride of my life.
52. Forgoing The Firing
A coworker of mine (consulting) overslept like once a week, showing up in a hurry around noon.
I knew he was going to be fired on a Friday. He didn't show up because he overslept.
51. A Relaxed Promotion
This was when I was in the military. Promotion results were coming out the next day. I had hurt my shoulder at the gym and the doc prescribed me a muscle relaxer. He told me to take two but I was talking with one of the nurses I worked with and she said to only take one to see how I would react to it. I took it at 7 pm the night before and woke up at 10 am the next morning; the promotion results had come at 8 am.
I had a ton of missed calls and a lot of texts congratulating me. My commander was looking for me to present my certificate to. I got there at 11 am. Luckily, the nurse that I worked with had told them about the muscle relaxers, so I didn’t get in trouble. It was still very embarrassing and I will never forget it. Great way to show that I deserved the promotion.
50. Dashing To Dialysis
A few years ago, I worked for a taxi/hired car company in a semi-rural area. Amongst other things, one of my booked jobs was from the Department of Veteran Affairs. War vets got free transport to medical appointments, where they paid nothing (the department paid the company).
My Saturday shift started at 6.30 am, because by 7 am I was supposed to be picking up an old man to run him to the hospital for dialysis. I woke up at 6.40 am and when I realized the time, I leaped out of bed. I had no time to drive to the depot and swap cars so I rang my boss in a panic. "Hi boss. I slept in but I'm on my way in now... what do I do? I'll go pick up X in my car if I have to!" And my boss is like, "Nah, you're good, come in, grab the limo. The time they book for always factors in time to be early. Thanks for being honest." So in the end, I got the war vet to his appointment with about 5 minutes to spare.
I miss those days. I had a great boss.
49. Uphill Battle
Last day of middle school I oversleep the bus by 3 minutes, slip on all of my clothes, and run out the door to try and make it to school on foot. The school is 2 miles from my house, almost entirely on an incline.
48. Clock Confusion
I work from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Took a nap when I got home; when I woke up and looked at the clock and it read 6:30, so I launched out of bed to get ready. Only later did I realize it was 6:30 p.m. of the same day.
47. Saturday School
First period teacher in high school was a jerk who made a big stink when students showed up late. Being the timid student that I was, I feared this heavily. So I made sure to be on time to avoid the embarrassment. One morning I woke up and realized I slept in and had very little time to get to school. I got changed in record time and was out my door in minutes. The walk normally took about 15 minutes; I was at the front doors of the school in like 7 minutes, but the doors were locked... because it was Saturday.
46. No Sense Of Urgency
Someone pulled the fire alarm in my dorm during finals. I was sleep-deprived and genuinely slept through the blaring siren in the hall. The fire department goes door to door with a master key and checks every room. They found me asleep. Middle of December. Middle of the night. They line me up outside with everyone else wrapped in a skimpy blanket and flip flops (they wouldn't let me dress) until the building (of 900 people) was cleared. Probably a half hour but it felt like a week. I also got fined 50 bucks for ignoring a fire alarm.
45. Graduation Cap And Nightgown
I almost missed my college graduation because I had been up for days working on my final thesis. Graduation morning I was ready and was going to close my eyes for “20 minutes.”
I woke up and graduation was 10 minutes away. Never ran so fast in my life.
44. Missing The Merger
My company had just merged with another. No jobs were lost, but it was deemed by the higher-ups that it would be a great idea to rent a bus and drive us all to a big expo (think European CES) to get everyone to know each other. The bus was to leave at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday.
I had just moved out of my parents' house and I am not a morning person. So out of fear of oversleeping, I set two alarm clocks, both out of reach, requiring me to really get out of bed.
In the days leading up to that Saturday, I prepared as much as possible. Cleaned the whole house, made breakfast that Friday evening so I would require as little time as possible on that Saturday morning and triple-checked my alarms were set. My colleague asked on Friday if I could provide a ride for him, as his car had broken down. He lived nearby. so I told him no sweat, I'll come to pick you up at 5:00 a.m.
Don't know how it happened, but I woke up at 10:00 a.m. that Saturday morning, alarms still going off and a few missed calls from the aforementioned colleague.
Not a good start after a merger. I dreaded the phone call to my manager. In the end, it all worked out fine but I was really angry at my brain.
43. Haunted By Homework
I woke up in a cold sweat realizing I fell asleep with a massive term paper due that morning and I didn’t even start it because it wasn’t mentioned by the teacher (just listed in the syllabus, and my "something's not right" senses decided to wake me up on the day it was due at 4:00 am). I legitimately threw myself out of my bed, full speed ahead...
Then my brain started to warm up and I realized that I am in a country 6,000 miles from my university. And that I graduated 5 years ago... and the professor no longer works there. (I Googled it, just to be sure).
42. A Lucky Move
In grad school, I lollygagged in renewing my lease on my apartment. When I did renew, someone had already claimed my apartment, so I had to move two doors down. They asked me for a date, and I picked a Sunday, thinking that would be when my parents could help me move. What I didn't realize was that was the day before the final draft of my master's thesis was due.
So we get everything moved. Then I work on my thesis. After pulling an all-nighter, I reached the point where I thought I was about done but also so tired I stopped thinking. So I decided to take a nap for a few hours. The alarm clock didn't go off (or I slept through it). I woke up two hours before it was due, freaking the heck out.
I actually didn't submit it until two and half hours after it was due, but they accepted it and never said anything. But the stress was unbearable.
41. Late And Lectured
I disputed a fine and was to present in front of a judge to explain it. I arrived 15 minutes late, hair still wet and wearing mismatched socks. Also, I was struggling to attach a tie.
The judge was not impressed, rejected my dispute, and gave me a sermon about punctuality.
That oversleeping cost me $600 and some dignity.
40. Ever-so Clearly Failing
I was in college and the department I was a part of decided to do a roast. It was one of the last days of the semester so finals were here. Anyway...
At the roast, someone brought homemade distilled apple pie drinks, made with a high-proof brand bottle. If you haven’t had it before, don’t. Bad idea.
So we’re passing around a half gallon of the stuff and you can’t taste how strong it is. You can only feel it warm your throat which is nice on a cold winter night in the Midwest.
I decided to leave since I had a final the next morning and I wanted to get a decent amount of sleep. I wasn’t tipsy when I walked out the door, but as I was walking, the beverage must have metabolized or something 'cause when I was about 4 blocks from my dorm, I woke up the next morning an hour after my final. Failed the class and embarrassed myself since my friends were in said class too.
39. Twenty-Four Hour Turnaround
Not me but one of my old teachers. When he was in college, he had a huge final coming up in a few days and he had already spent the last few days pulling all-nighters and cramming. The final was on a Friday, and he decided he would get some sleep Thursday morning after another all-nighter.
When he woke up, he asked his roommate what time it was. His roommate said, "It's 2:00, do you wanna know what day it is?"
As it turned out, he had slept from Thursday morning all the way to Saturday afternoon and completely missed his final. Luckily he immediately ran to find his professor, and she told him he could take it right then and there or else he got a 0.
38. Close Call
I overslept because of alarm clock failure on a morning I was to play the organ for a 9:00 a.m. funeral.
When the church office called wondering why I wasn't there early as usual, I scrambled to get moving, making it to the church just as the hearse was pulling up to the front door to bring in the coffin.
37. Uncharged And Unreliable
Got called the night before to cover a shift someone had called out for. Said yes, I'd be there. I hurried home from being out with a friend, and set an alarm for early the next morning.
Well, my iPad (what I use for alarms) decided to not charge overnight, and consequently died before my alarm could go off. Woke up two hours after I was supposed to be there. I got called in specifically because I'm one of their most reliable workers. I sure wasn't that day. Oops.
36. Disrupting Dinner
I got home from school dead tired having not slept properly the night before. Just conking out then was not an option, so I decided to nap, then get up to finish my homework.
I woke up to pre-dawn light... And the clock read 7:30; exactly when my dad came by to take me to school.
I loudly shouted "crap," grabbed my bag, and bolted for the door, interrupting my mom and some very confused and alarmed guests just sitting down for dinner.
35. Alone At The Gas Station
When I was in college I had to go home for a doctor's appointment one day and so I had to take the 2-hour bus ride back to Chicago. I stupidly partied the night before and woke up later than I wanted. I didn't have a ride, so I had to walk to the gas station where the bus stop is, which was about 2-3 miles from campus and across a highway. It was really stupid of me, but it was early enough that there weren't any cars.
I'm about 100 feet away from the gas station and I see my bus pulling away. I chased after it but the driver didn't see me and he pulled onto the on-ramp. I had no choice but to sit at that gas station and wait 2 hours until the next bus came because there was no point walking back to campus.
34. Sleepy And Sad On Skype
I came home from working a 6:00 am to 2:00 pm shift. Was on Skype with my boyfriend at the time and apparently nodded off. Woke up around 8:00 pm, but it was still light enough that things were softly lit. It was dusk, but my brain thought it was dawn.
I saw it was almost 9:00 and thought I had somehow slept through the night, into the morning, while on Skype, and my boyfriend didn't wake me up. I was so mad at him while scrambling to get ready.
He goes "It's [whatever time] pm."
And I about cried because I thought he not only let me sleep through the night but the WHOLE NEXT DAY. I finally put it all together and felt awful. I did apologize but he was a bit upset I got upset.
33. Remote Production
Directed a low budget feature film in November. Woke up to a phone call from my producer at 7:40 asking if I was on my way to breakfast (unit call was 8:00 am). I don’t usually do 90mph on the M4 in Wales but I had a 40-minute commute to get to set. I directed the scenes to my producer (over the phone) who started getting everything ready before I got there.
32. Poor Judgement
Overslept jury duty, but luckily my number wasn't called.
31. Camping At Home
Last year, I got my first job as a manager about an hour and a half away from my home. I started working out with one of my girls after work and so I’d get home really late.
One night, I got home and found my fiancé forgot to pay the bills and our water was shut off. I was like, "Okay, I guess I’ll wake up early, drive to the gym by my office and shower/get ready there." I slept through my alarm and woke up with no time to go to the gym.
I literally urinated on my yard with my dog that morning and took a mini bath in my pool. Soap and all. My dog is half-mastiff, half-lab and I think that was the greatest morning of her life. She still looks at me like “you coming?” when I let her out in the morning.
30. Late To Class
I overslept for class one day, but plot twist: I was the teacher, at a high school, where we can get in trouble if something happens. Luckily the worst thing that happened is some of the kids texted their friends and so there were three randoms in the class when I walked in.
29. Missing The Movie
I slept in until 1:00 pm. The night before, I was playing through a video game I really enjoy until about 2:00 am. Was supposed to meet my girlfriend for a movie date at 11:00 am. I immediately called her and said something along the lines of “OHIMSORRYIOVERSLEPTWHATHAPPENED.” She explained, surprisingly calmly, that she was still waiting by for me. I booked a cab, got to the theater, and basically spent five solid minutes explaining what happened and how sorry I was. Luckily she was happy to finally see me. Bought lunch for us and the movie tickets. I’m lucky she liked me.
28. Dinner For The Disoriented
I was once supposed to meet some friends for dinner at like 8:00 pm. I decided to take a nap at about 5:00 pm. Woke up refreshed and disoriented, looked at the clock and it said like 6:23. It was dark out, so I was like, "Crap! I slept for over 12 hours!"
I sent my friend a text apologizing for missing dinner figuring he would see it when he woke up. Immediately texted me back saying, "What? We’re meeting in like 90 minutes." That’s when I remembered it was winter and it got dark early. That feeling of "I messed up" melting into "I have an hour to do whatever" was nice.
27. An Alarming Situation
I was on a business trip at my relatively new job, fresh out of college. When I checked into my hotel room, I noticed the alarm clock was flashing 12:00 am which was incorrect but I didn’t bother to fix it. I plugged my phone into the charger, set two alarms on it just in case, and went to sleep.
I woke up in the morning to check how much longer I had to sleep and realized my phone was completely dead (it had just randomly broken during the night, no idea what happened). In a panic, I then realize I have no idea what time it is because the clock in the room is wrong. I turn on the TV to try and find the TV guide channel with a time, but in my panic couldn’t figure out how to work the remote. I frantically start getting dressed and then realize I can call the front desk to ask what time it is. It was 5:00 am and my meeting wasn’t until 7:30 am so I was all stressed for nothing.
I always make sure my clock is right when I check into hotels now.
26. Sweating It Out
I worked as a lifeguard/swim instructor at the local (30 miles away) water park and was a pyrotech on my days off. I had just spent the 4th of July shooting a fireworks show from the middle of a lake, which was dawn 'til dusk setting up in full sun on the water on floating docks. At the time, I was very sleep-deprived and working 80-ish hours a week, and developed a horrible case of bronchitis.
I never set an alarm because I didn't have to be to work until 9:30 and never slept past 7:00, but this day I woke up at 11:30 to my phone ringing off the hook; the boss was worried about me. So I leap out of bed and hop in the car. This was a 95-degree morning and my car decided it wanted to overheat, so I drove the entire time windows down blasting the heater trying to limp the car to town.
I was 6 blocks from work at a 4-way stop, middle of the intersection, and the car died. I then had to push the car uphill by myself, wheezing to get it out of the road and walk the rest of the way to work. When got to work, I was so exhausted and out of breath that my voice was gone and the boss was forced to sit me in a chair at the top of our slides, because no one could hear me. To top it all off, during the day I got 18 roses from a guy that proposed on our first lunch date and was 11 years my senior with a 3-year-old.
When my dad picked me up he wanted to know about the roses, and I begrudgingly told him who it was. The guy and my dad were acquaintances. So yeah, worst "I overslept" story for me.
25. Long Way To School
The first day of college, I slept on the bus since it's a long trip and I'm not used to waking up early. Woke up about 8 blocks past my university, so I had to take another ride back.
When I got to the entrance, I only had about 10 minutes left before class starts, so instead of using the elevator, I ran up the fire exit stairs to the 9th or 10th floor. Got in the room at the exact same time as the professor.
I looked so exhausted, which wasn't really the best way to present yourself on your first day of college. But at least I was on time.
24. Car Naps
I was hired by a big box store for their overnight stocking shift. They told me I had to be at a certain door by a specific time to be let in. First night went fine. I joined the group and went in, trained like normal. Second night, got to work a little early and fell asleep in my car by accident... for 3 hours. Whoops.
23. Long Bus Ride
Traffic's bad where I live. On the bus ride home, I decided to take a nap. I usually wake up just before my stop but this time, in my tiredness, I simply just slept through people getting out of the bus and to the conductor calling out the stop. Woke up as the bus was turning in to their depot. Hurriedly said I've got to get off. Took a cab home instead.
22. Too Late To Apologize
I woke up at noon with a text from my sister who lives in Boston (not too far away, I’m in New York) saying that if I could get there in a few hours, I could see OneRepublic (my favorite band), for free, at a private event at her work. The text came at 7:00 am. I didn’t get there.
21. Wrong Lesson Learned
When I was 16, I was working at a music shop/private tuition school. On one Saturday, my boss had to be somewhere else, so she trusted me to cover all her piano lessons for that day.
Knowing what a great opportunity this was, I was determined not to mess it up. I got all my things ready the night before and went to bed at 9:00 pm so I would be well rested to get up at 6:00 am ready for lessons to start at 9:00 am. To be safe, I had set three separate alarms: phone, and two alarm clocks.
I woke up at 10:00 am to my mom banging on the door because my boss phoned the house when I didn't turn up to do the lessons. She shouted at me down the phone that pupils had waited and no teacher showed up. I was horrified and so confused at how it possibly happened.
20. Catching Z's, Not Flights
Waiting for my flight back to Chicago from Portland, delay after delay on a flight scheduled at midnight. Fell asleep in the terminal, woke up at 3:00 am in the dark and not a single person anywhere. Literally smacked myself to make sure I was awake, had a mild panic attack. Had to wait another 3 hours for the ticket booths to open and buy a ticket home. I made dang sure I didn't fall asleep for that flight.
19. Passing Out On Promotion
When I was 17, I got a job at a popular sandwich shop chain. About two months later, on my 18th birthday, the owner promoted me to Assistant Manager (with him being the only other manager). He gave me keys and asked me to open it the next day. Naturally, I went and partied to celebrate my birthday and promotion that night. I was supposed to be at work at 9:00 am to open.
I woke up at 2:00 pm to about 30 missed calls from my boss, so I immediately called him and I got no "hello" even. All he said was "drop off the keys and get your final paycheck," and hung up. Thinking back, screw him. Who makes someone open a restaurant the day after their 18th birthday?
18. A Delayed Proposal
I had a date with my girlfriend where I later found out she was going to propose. I overslept by 12 hours and missed it.
17. International Disaster
I've missed international plane flights due to oversleeping. Yes, plural. It's why I try not to book morning flights anymore.
16. Important Meeting
Not me, but my boyfriend slept through his court date. Everyone was pretty upset at him.
15. Out Of Time
Was out late with some friends the night before I had a phone interview. I left them a bit early to get enough sleep, set my alarm for when the interview was, and for some reason put my phone on silent.
The next morning, I woke up early and thought I'd be okay to nap until my alarm went off. The alarm went off at the right time and I turned on my phone to find 4 calls from the interviewer and one message saying I no longer would be considered for the position. What I forgot was that I had scheduled the interview at their time (EDT) while I set my alarm for my time (MDT).
14. Working It Off
I had 5:30 am football practice and I overslept by 30 minutes. So I got there super late and I've never run so much in my life. The coach was very mad and I had to do 100 push-ups.
13. Bending Class Times
I go to rhythmic gymnastics and I have class on Sunday mornings. I knew that I had class the last day before the winter holidays, but my mom said I didn't so I woke up at 11:30. Usually, I have class at 10:00. As you may imagine, my innocent mind believed my mom. Imagine my surprise when my teacher sent us a message asking about my absence.
12. Tough Time
One time I was supposed to run a marathon in the Olympics, overslept, and missed it. Most people thought it was the snooze, but no snooze. It wasn't the am/pm, either. The alarm had a separate knob for the volume.
11. Passing Off The Portfolio
Freshman year of college I was in an English class that met every day at 7:40 am (ugh). Probably such a bad time slot because it was a young interim professor teaching his first college class. The grade for the entire semester was based on a portfolio of papers you had written throughout, and there was no final test. The final was just to show up and give the professor your portfolio.
The final day arrived and I had been out the night before. I woke up to a clock that said 8:25. Class ended at 8:30.
I was a decent sprinter but it was about 3/4 mile to the classroom so I knew there was no hope. I got up, threw on last night's clothes, and sprinted downstairs to consider my options; going along the road through campus and avoiding the central quad may save time. So I turned and went all out onto the road with a hope and a prayer and there was the professor with all the portfolios under his arm, waiting for the bus.
“HEY, can you take this!?”
“Uhh... sure.”
Bless your soul, interim professor whose name I forget.
10. Talking It Out
My freshman year of college I had a huge final. The final was a speech about any topic you were passionate about. Well, I woke up about 30 minutes into the class so I got dressed and sprinted across campus to get there.
When I got there I saw that everyone was clapping because someone had just finished their speech. Unfortunately, the door to the classroom was in the front were everyone presents. I decided that I had no choice, and there was no point in delaying the inevitable, so I walk in and clap with everyone else.
Of course everyone sees me do this and I get a slight chuckle out of it. A friend of mine in the class wanted to mess with me and said aloud, "Hey, since you got here late, why don't you give your speech next?" The teacher found that hilarious and agreed. I was fine with this because I had to get it over with anyway and I am very good at public speaking.
As I get over to the podium to present, I realized that I had in fact not prepared a speech at all. I then proceed to give a speech about being confident or something along those lines, using the motto "don't be a weenie."
I got a 100 on that final.
9. Missed Opportunities
Many years ago, I was job hunting and had a great interview for what, to me, was an amazing job. It was only an area sales manager's position, but it was with the top company in the field and a position I'd hankered after for ages. Everything went well and the interviewer told me to wait outside after I'd been grilled.
Eventually two of us were called back in to be told that they had narrowed the field down to the two of us and that they'd like to see us both the next day for a final interview. As the interviewer ushered us out, he patted me on the back and gave me the thumbs up, behind the other guy's back.
Great news. I was so excited that I celebrated that night and either forgot to set my alarm or just plain slept through it, well past my appointment time.
I phoned to apologize, only to be told that the job had been given to the other guy.
"If we can't trust you to turn up, I'm afraid we don't need you."
8. He's Not Lying
I had once applied to be a 911 operator in the county I was living in. Prior to being hired, during the prescreening/interview process, you have to submit to a polygraph exam at the local sheriff's department, FBI office, or state-level bureau of investigation. I live in Georgia, so I had to go to the GBI office near Atlanta.
My poly was supposed to have been at 2:30 PM. You have to be there early or on time, to the minute. Otherwise the examiner will leave, and you won't get the poly. I took a short nap that afternoon, intending to wake up at 1 PM. Mapquest told me it would take 30 minutes to get there from where I lived, but knowing traffic in the Atlanta area, I wanted to give myself extra time.
I woke up at 2:00 PM.
Drove to the GBI headquarters, and got there at 2:35 PM.
Needless to say, I didn't make it on time, and ended up not getting the job.
7. The Ghost Of Christmas Snoozing
I had to work Christmas Eve one year, so I bought a plane ticket for early Christmas morning to fly home to be with my family. They mailed me a single present so I'd have something to open when I woke up Christmas morning.
When I got home from work, I looked at that present. I said to myself "Mom and Dad always let me open one present on Christmas Eve, I could just open it now", but then I decided to wait. Went to bed.
I overslept, woke up about 20 minutes before my flight was supposed to board, and I lived 45 minutes away from the airport. I called a cab to come get me and was sitting around waiting on it and figured "Well I guess I'll open that present now since I can't do anything else to get to the airport faster."
It was an alarm clock.
I kid you not. A CD player alarm clock. On the day I overslept. An alarm clock I almost opened the night before, and absolutely would've set as a backup alarm.
Got to the airport, sat around for about 6 hours, realized I wasn't getting on a flight. Took Metro to the bus station, got on a Greyhound Bus for the 17 hour overnight bus ride home. Got home at 9 in the morning on December 26th.
So yeah. Missed Christmas entirely.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels
6. It Could Happen To Anyone
I was taking biology my freshman year of college and to this day it was my most difficult class. The professor was really great, the only thing he was ever strict about was the final. He made a huge deal about not being late. He repeated about ten times that if you were even a minute late to the final you wouldn't be allowed in and you wouldn't be able to retake it.
I made sure to be the good student that I wasn't normally. I studied early so that I wouldn't have to cram, I went to bed early, set my alarm, laid out my clothes... The whole nine yards.
Something happened to my alarm as it didn't go off. I looked at my clock and had about two minutes until the final. There was no way I could get from my dorm to the class on time but that didn't stop me from trying. I tore out of bed and just ran.
I showed up at the door in my flannel pyjamas, hair a mess, no shoes, crying, and breathing heavily from running. I was like 5 minutes late. I just looked at the professor and before I could choke out the words between sobs he just looked at me and said “take a seat and calm down, finish the test when you’re ready.” I have no idea what I got on the final but I did well in the class and now have a fear of not waking up to my alarm for important events.
Pixabay
5. Public Shaming
My sophomore or junior year of college (can't remember which for sure), I worked full time (at least 40 but closer to 50 hours) and had 19 credit hours in the education major. This entailed lots of extra classroom observations and field trips in addition to regular coursework.
I was super excited one random Wednesday morning to get the opportunity to sleep in because my first class was cancelled. It was only an extra 30-45 minutes, but it was nice.
While driving to my second class, I passed an elementary school and realized in an instant that I had forgotten about a "volunteering opportunity" (read: required for class) that I had been voluntold to do at the last minute earlier in the week because my first class wasn't meeting during that time and they needed more people.
Not only did I leave a class of 3rd graders without their career person (was supposed to help them with their practice interviews or something), I got called out by my professor during our next class. He made me stand up while he lectured me and everyone about commitments and then kicked me out of class until I returned with an apology letter that I had to read out loud. He then kicked me out again because my excuse was that I just plain forgot, that my schedule was super crazy, and it was unlike me to do anything like this, ever. He almost flunked me, too, but I saw that coming and got other staff to intervene.
Flickr
4. Losing It Pays Off
Law school exam, first semester.
In law school, your entire grade for most classes is only the final exam. I have a particularly bad habit of not studying all semester and pulling all nighters the day or two before exams to cram a semester's worth of material into my head.
On the morning of one of my finals my first year, I woke to a text from a classmate asking where I was as the exam started in 15 minutes. Panicked, I raced to the administrative office (because you get cards with a series of numbers to use as your name on exams, to ensure all exams are anonymously graded) and, naturally, I hadn't gotten my card yet.
However, the nitwit woman at the office wouldn't give me my anonymous card, stating that I had an unpaid parking ticket that first needed to be paid. I hadn't brought my wallet with me, but had brought my license which I offered to leave as collateral, promising to pay it once the exam was over. She rolled her eyes and told me tough luck, should have planned better. Already in a panic, stressed about exams, not ready to accept I had caused this entire problem myself, and disbelieving that I was going to miss an exam due to this woman's lack of basic empathy, I lost it.
She gave me my card. I was banned from entering the office unless two people were on staff, though.
Photo by yns plt on Unsplash
3. Thanks, Train Guy!
Fell asleep on a train in South Korea (traveling from Seoul to Kumi City). Normally a 3 hour trip. Thankfully, I woke up as the train was leaving the station as I would never known that I passed my stop. I thought "I'll just get off at the next stop and jump on the train traveling in the opposite direction". 45 minutes later I get off at a station that looks like a warehouse and is stationed in a valley (think "middle of nowhere" and you're close). Tracks are exiting the station in 12 directions, there's only one employee there and he can't speak english. The train schedule is printed on the wall and it is all in Korean.
I went to the one guy and handed him my ticket, and started pointing at the tracks asking "Kumi?" and he looked at me not understanding the question (to be fair, the name is Anglicized, and may sound more like Gumi or Goomi). Finally, he saw the destination on the ticket pointed at it, and he summoned his best English "This....this...KUMI!". I said "yes!" and started motioning like I was trying to figure out which track to stand at. He then asked "Why...why......HERE?", I immediately mimed a person sleeping, and he burst out laughing. Then he walked over to the schedule on the wall, studied it for 2-3 minutes then walked me over several sets of tracks and waited with me. When a train arrived, he signaled to the conductor to wait for a while (S. Korean trains run a tight schedule), he walked through the cars until he found a family that had an empty seat AND wanted to practice their English. I communicated my thanks to the guy through the family, and talked with them all the way back so that I would stay awake.
Pixabay
2. Call The Sub
It was my second year teaching. I had already started out with a crappy year. I had 3 separate subjects to teach in a middle school where everyone else taught one subject. My classes were terrible. I hated that year. My scores were crap, and I knew I was on the chopping block.
Then it happened.
I had a bad headache one night, and the only medicine I had was Tylenol PM. Being 7 o'clock at night, I thought I'd be fine to take two, since I had more than 8 hours to sleep. Boy, was I wrong.
I woke up the next day to my dogs going insane at the door of my apartment. My dad was outside screaming and knocking. I thought someone was dead, for sure.
Then I realized... it was 10 a.m. Work started at 7.
I wasn't just late. I was miserably, embarrassingly, and unforgivably late. You can brush off 30 minutes. 3 hours is a different story.
When I came to my senses, I realized what had happened. Not only did I sleep through my alarm clock, but my phone was dead. Several of my coworkers had called me and I didn't respond.
I was so embarrassed, but I had to call my boss. It was simple. I'd just explain the situation. As soon as she answered the phone, my adrenaline wore off and I started crying and apologizing and begging her not to fire me.
Turns out there had been an accident on the highway that morning, and everyone was so relieved I wasn't dead they weren't even mad! The principal gave me the rest of the day off. I bought her really good cupcakes the next day.
I did get made fun of forever after that. But I didn't get fired.
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
1. In Need Of Refreshment
I slept in and missed my flight from Wroclaw to Warsaw. Thankfully, I was able to catch a later flight and still make my connector to Chicago, but just barely.
Here's why partying super hard the night before flying is ill-advised. Wroclaw to Warsaw is like a forty minute flight, so it's a tiny plane. I was super hungover, terrified of flying, and we had big turbulence on our tiny plane. So I puked everywhere. Most of it got in the bag (though some got on my dress). Thankfully, the old lady next to me knew enough English to say "it's okay, " but I still felt just terrible for her.
We land in Warsaw. I have a knee brace and a cane at the time, so I'm not moving super quickly, and my dress still has a modicum of puke on it. I go to check in for the Chicago flight, and the guy at the check-in desk gets wide-eyed and says we'll have to make a run for it. So we did. Chubby Lufthansa worker and girl in pukey dress with cane.
I go to the front of the line for security and we limp/run across the terminal. They're shutting the door as we arrive. There is a very rushed, heated conversation in Polish. I don't speak Polish, so all I can think is "Dear God, please let me go home. I know I'm a moron, but I just wanna go home." Well, he must've heard my prayers because they let me on the plane.
And when I arrived in Chicago after a month in Russia and two weeks in Poland, I was so happy I cried. I had a couple hours before the flight to Detroit, so I sat at the bar in Bennigan's in my pukey dress that I'd been wearing for about ten or eleven hours and had an American Coke. And it was fabulous.
Pixabay
