A few weeks ago I lost my wallet. Never a good thing. The timing of this occurrence was particularly aggravating because I was just on my way to the post office to turn in my passport application, which of course I'd been putting off until the last reasonable moment. After scouring my entire apartment 3 times as well as my car, I deemed it officially missing. The next logical step to procuring a missing belonging is not, contrary to popular belief, to panic and worry; this will only result in the accelerated release of cortisol, unnecessarily raising stress levels, which we all know does not have any desirable or uplifting effects. Rather, it is to rationally analyze your past traversing to ascertain other possible whereabouts. Therefore, I knew that I had had it between the time I copied my driver's license (for the application) and the time I realized it was gone, in between which time I had been in class. I retraced my steps in the parking lot and around the classroom without success. So I went to the Lost and Found to see if they had seen any sign of it. They hadn't yet. It had only been 2 hours though, so it was highly possible that it would turn up later. It was, however, Friday afternoon, so that meant I'd have to wait until Monday to check back again. No problem...ok, a little inconvenient but I still didn't see a reason to worry. I kept an eye on my bank accounts, got frustrated about my foiled plans, and bunkered down to wait. BYU is a great place to lose something that important, if it has to be lost at all, so I had every confidence that it would turn up one way or another.
Well, Monday morning rolled around and during my 11 o'clock break I checked in with the Lost and Found. Contrary to my dream the previous night, they still had not seen it. I was starting to get a little anxious and irked that I was going to have to call the bank and go through all that hassle plus figure out how to get a new driver's license (which shouldn't have been a big deal, it expires this year anyway, and not that I really liked the picture on my old one - it's actually pretty hideous - but I thought it would be cool to have my first driver's license for sentimental reasons). Then I checked my phone and saw that I'd missed a call. It ended up being from my finance professor saying that he had my wallet! He was going to bring it to class so I could get it from him then. Elated, I went about the rest of my tasks, satisfied that my cool-headed handling of the situation was well founded.
When I got to the class, I wasn't really sure how to breach the situation, because I'm pretty sure that he doesn't know who I am. So after some deliberation, I bashfully made my way to the front and asked/told him that he had my wallet. He was very gracious about it, and a little apologetic. A student had apparently approached him with it after class on Friday and he meant to contact me about it then, but had gone to his office and forgotten. So I could have fretted a little less about how I was going to cover myself on that date I went on on Saturday (I asked him so I wasn't sure if he was going to pay for me or not - don't worry, he did. :)), but that was probably a small price to pay.
Now, this situation is fraught with irony. Friday's class was actually a lecture about being financially responsible. Next thing I know I have committed the most financially irresponsible act of carelessly leaving my wallet in a public place. In the very class that discussed it. And I get my wallet back from the man who was telling us to be responsible in the first place. Classic. Needless to say, I am now very conscientious about where I put it. Lesson learned.
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