TIFU for forgetting 12pm means noon and nearly missing a big deadline

Obligatory disclaimer that this happened a few weeks ago just wanted to wait until it no longer made me cry.

I (25f) recently went back to school for a post graduate program. The workload has been intense (six courses) and particularly hard with assignments coming left, right centre faster than anyone could keep up. The final four weeks were tough and keeping up with deadlines was like that final lap of Mario kart where the music speeds up and you’re desperately trying not to slip over a banana peel.

We have the same professor for courses we’ll call Class 1 and Class 2 who combined the final project for both courses into a two parter — two different assignments but on the same topic and in the same groups just one was written and the other was technical. Each was worth 20% and we had a month to do them — December 9th. I’d worked with this group of friends we’ll call “Jack” “Wendy” “Alice” and “Sarah” before and knew they were good workers. Early on, Jack and Sarah mentioned that they were working and flying home on the due date respectively, and would like us to start early to make sure we get things done. No problem. We pick a topic we really like and things come together fairly quickly.

December 8th comes around and the project is going well but everything else has descended into chaos. I have one group presentation going poorly, a bully in another, three WhatsApp group chats blowing up at once and I’m here running solely on too much caffeine and Christmas magic. We have a meeting with the professor over zoom about part one who confirms that we’re on the right track and we feel ready to submit at midnight the following day.

December 9th comes around (yes, we have classes on Saturdays and yes it sucks as much as you think) and Sarah wishes us well as she boards her flight and the rest of us have a meeting at 2:30 pm. We get on zoom with the professor to talk about our progress who, after some small talk, asks us if we made our submission. Every single one of us is momentarily confused before confirming yes, we submitted the supplementary peer review. The professor nods and then asks us again. We stared blankly at one another (to the extent that we could through our cameras) wondering why she was asking if we had made a submission for an assignment due at midnight.

It was Jack who finally said “you mean the one due tonight?” To which the professor said “No, I mean the term assignment for Class 1.” Jack repeats himself “it’s not due until midnight though? You mean the peer review?” and I add “no, I checked, it’s due at twelve.” and it’s then that it hits me.

Part one was due at 12:00 pm. Meaning noon aka two and a half hours ago. Part two is due at midnight. To make matters worse, I’d checked this the previous night and freaking registered that it meant noon and somehow still forgot. But it wasn’t just me, somehow we’d all missed it because were used to our stuff being due at midnight and we assumed both of these would be the same.

You could have heard a pin drop in that zoom call. There were several seconds of panic before Jack and I call out in shock. Alice and Wendy aren’t speaking. I’m thinking about how Sarah’s on a plane for the next ten hours and how in the hell are we going to explain this? She’s never going to speak to me again.

The professor realizes what’s happened and tells us not to worry. She’s allowed for late submissions in case people had issues submitting online or needed last minute help. She also extended part two (the one actually due that night) by a day because of how burnt out and exhausted we all look, basically. She’s always been a super kind and understanding person so this reaction wasn’t out of left field.

When we get off the call (and I’ve stopped crying like a three year old) we take a minute to recover from the shock before pulling together, making adjustments, and submitting our work. We laugh about it now, but yeah…write down your deadlines, kids. Happy holidays everyone!

TLDR: Five adults on a group project forgot that 12:00 pm means noon/midday, not midnight, and nearly missed a submission worth 20% of our grade, heart attacks ensue.