This week, Carleton forums on facebook, reddit and even Yik Yak have been overrun by a chain of questions and concerns from a student Shopine Gadikt ’27 and her parents concerning the flexibility of her departure from campus. On Sunday night, Gadikt mindlessly placed an order on the website of one of her favorite stores, hardly stopping to consider the fact that the shop app automatically filled in Carleton as her address. Panic set in on Wednesday, when Gadikt’s mother asked her about starting to pack, and Gadikt replied that she was still waiting for her package. She checked the tracking link and suddenly realized that her beloved website had one major flaw: a 4–5 day order processing period! Her items hadn’t even begun to be prepared for shipping. A major crisis was in order.
Immediately, this student took action and started a group face time call with her whole family groupchat. With the support of generations behind her, she got on the phone with the airline and implored them to allow her to make her ticket fully cancellable. They were reluctant, but once Gadikt revealed what it was that she had ordered, they were sympathetic and told her she would have until 48 hours before the flight to cancel it.
However, this was not reassuring enough — this student had made plans to leave early following one final on Saturday morning, and knew that if the order was only processed on Monday of week 10, there was a non-zero chance of it not arriving within the week. As drastic times call for drastic measures, Gadikt called in the cavalry (read: her parents) and convinced them to fly over, hang out for the last week to help her pack up, rent a car and drive back with her. Flights were cancelled, dog-sitters were found and an emergency hotel room was booked, just in case this process took an extra day.
On Friday, Gadikt was surprised by a late afternoon email alerting her that a package had been received for her at the mailroom. She was relieved, and ready to call her parents and let them know the good news, when she was surprised by their location data: at the airport, 43 minutes ago. She looked up their flight number, and sure enough, it had already departed. When Gadikt returned, embarrassed, to her dorm, she was disappointed to find the going-out top did not fit in quite the way that she had hoped.
