Usually if a student wants to enter a research project into the student bazaar, a form must be completed and submitted a month before arrival in London. I had passed up this opportunity despite having something I’m sure could be entered. However it was on the Friday afternoon several hours before the bazaar that a staff member had asked me if I had anything interesting I wanted to present. I did not want to say no, but wasn’t sure I could put together a good presentation in time. An hour later I decided to do it. I had all the material on my computer...but faced the challenge of getting it from soft copy to hard copy as I was not only at an unfamiliar school, but also in an unfamiliar city. I had started with my hall of residence’s reception area. I went to the receptionist and explained the predicament. Surprised at how understanding they were, they said they would allow me to print some brochures from the tiny printer they had available.
“How many copies would you like?” ... I started to think about the 300 students at the forum...and the approximately 25 staff members-
“Hmmm…would 50 be alright?”
The receptionist froze and looked as if she was choking on the candy that she had been eating.
She then explained to me her doubts about the amount of ink she had. And that she couldn’t print them double sided from the printer they had.
“Try the library”
The library? Was this lady not hearing my accent...and realizing that not only was I not a student but a tourist?
Anyways she gave me directions to the library and off I went. So I got to the library and saw a man at the front desk. He was of the same ethnic group I was but I thought nothing of it as I saw a few blacks in the city. I explained the situation to him, and told him I was from Jamaica...This seemed to ignite a fire in him…
“Jamaaaaica!” he asked
“Yes” I said with a little chuckle.
“Man I’m from Jamaica!”, he then went on to ask where I went to school and told me that he had gone to a traditional high school just down the road from mine. He was now ready to help out big time. So after the little chat, He gave me a pass to the computer room and I was able to go there to print.
After getting into the computer room and looking for the print station I realized that it wasn’t what I was used to -which was normal computers hooked up to a printing network- At Imperial, there are two computer kiosks that allow you to save a file to your imperial account. Then go to any of the ALL- in - one machines access this file from the log in on the machine and make the desirable prints. I thought this was pretty amazing. But one problem, I had no Imperial account. I went back to the front desk and explained the ordeal. The man at the counter then directed me to the IT department upstairs and said I was to see if they could make me an account. I went and after a long chat a worker there, he explained that he could not make an account for a visitor. I went back downstairs to the front desk worker, and told him. He said “Honestly dude I don’t know what to do” It was at this point that I felt like I didn’t have to be doing that...and that I should just leave all of this and go hang out with my friends. However I did the opposite…I asked the worker if he knew anyone who could help. He then directed me to his superior, and after a chat with her I found the solution. Every visitor who signs up for an Internet passcode gets an account on the imperial network. This username and password was given to me on the first day of forum. I walked back the 10 mins to my dorm, grabbed the paper, and in another 10 mins I was speaking to the superior again. She then told me that what she can do now is to put money on my account that I can use for printing from the machines-Perfect!- So she did this and in no time I was spawning copies of my two-sided brochures. *Looks at watch.... realizes I only have an hour to get my affairs in order*. After collecting the brochures I went back to the front desk of the library and immensely thanked the worker and his superior. They wished me good luck and i went on my way. (I was even invited to my country’s Independence Day celebration that he apparently was involved with at the embassy not too far away.) After getting back to my dorm and telling my friends and our chaperone about my ordeal, they laughed and said it would be worth it. We went off to dinner as a group, and I ate swiftly and left ahead of them to go get ready for the bazaar. When I got there I realized I was a bit early as they were still labeling spaces. I got a pretty nice space. Then I asked a staff member.
“So when are you guys going to bring up the tables?”
He replied, “Tables there aren’t going to be any tables.”
My head started to hurt immediately. I then proceed to explain to him that because I decided to do this at the last minute. I hadn’t printed any material to put on a backboard. My presentation was centered on a slideshow I had in iPhoto and my brochures. After much pleading and my constant badgering I managed to get a laptop stand. But still had the problem of an empty backboard. So what I had done was to run down to the reception hall of the building we were in - this was Beit Hall, I stayed in Southside, so I did not know these receptionists- and put together some material for the backboard, like the title of the project etc. I ended up getting these printed and I ran back to the Bazaar room. I set up using some double-sided tape. Got my slideshow running...started attracting passers-by and I felt accomplished. What had happened after all this wasn’t that important to me - Though I was selected to be in the top 10 research projects, of 50 students; and a renowned professor said that the work my partner and I did was amazing and had very great implications...even suggesting that I should skip undergraduate studies and go postgraduate...but I guess that one was for my ego...haha - It was the fact that after all the hard work, and though it seemed as if it wasn’t going to be feasible. Things worked out for the best! It was Spryte Loriano who said, “Every great story on the planet happened when someone decided not to give up, but kept going no matter what.” And I believe this more and more everyday.
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