Back in my schooling days, I took pride in cutting corners. Call me a scumbag if you will, fine, but I believe college should be less about studying textbooks and more about learning how to survive. If there’s an excuse to get out of homework, I’ve probably used it.
In high school, I told my science teacher that my dog at my homework. While the uninitiated might think that’s a fool’s errand, those versed in the arts of excuses know how brilliant it is. Its lack of believability is what makes is believable.
“Uhh, Mrs. Belas,” I timidly said.
“I know this sounds crazy, and I know you probably won’t believe me… but my dog literally ate my homework.”
The key is that it’s too ridiculous to be a lie. And that’s why I respect the hell out of Ohio State student Rachel Harriman.
Harriman, a 19-year-old Ohio State University student, decided to just tell her professor the truth about why she turned in an assignment late: She had just been dumped.
Rachel Harriman emailed her history professor last week to apologize for sending in her assignment a few hours late.
Now, here’s the brilliance of this excuse, real or not: it’s so personal that the professor feels way too awkward asking any further questions, and immediately decides it would just be easier to accept it. Is there any proof that Rachel Harriman got dumped? Of course not. But to the teachers, who would possibly lie about something like that to get out of a homework assignment. Power outage? Sure. Flat-tire? I’ve done it. But a breakup? That has to be real.
Luckily for Harriman, she ended up having what seems to be a cool professor, as he granted her an extension. She’s lucky she didn’t run into one of those self-righteous ‘law is law’ teachers, who refuse to impede on the integrity of their syllabus. I’ve run into a couple of those kinds of teachers in my day and let me tell you, those are miserable, miserable people.
Harriman ended up with a B+ on her history assignment.
