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The Seven Stages of Grief When You Lose Your Husky Card

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Northeastern chapter.

Your husky card is what gets you into anything and everything at Northeastern and losing it is like a right of passage; it happens to everyone. These are the seven stages of grief that come along with losing your key to being a Northeastern student.

  1. Shock and Denial “I think I left it in my room,” “I am positive I left it in …’s room last night,” “Oh yeah, I totally know where it is.” It is almost unthinkable that anyone could lose such an important thing, after all it is how you get into your room, building, gym, dining hall, and even library. The simple notion that you don’t know where your husky card is leaves you in a state of shocked disbelief; you simply won’t accept it and you will surely find your card somewhere.

  2. Pain and Guilt It can take time to arrive at this stage of your grief, but once you get there you begin to realize that when your phone dies you are screwed and your subconscious is trying to understand that there is a slight possibility you might have to pay that $25 fee to get a new one. That is probably going to be around 50% of what brings you pain as well, because let’s face it, you would much rather go the to movies with your friends. Sucks to be on a college student’s budget. You also know that if your parents find out, they are going to think that you are irresponsible and that the college experience has not helped you grow (highly unlikely you will feel guilty for not telling them, you are avoiding an extensive lecture after all, but you will feel guilty for having to spend their money to replace something you already had).

  3. Anger This is when you start to lash out at anyone and everyone around you; your closest friend for not knowing where it is, your roommate for not being in the room to help you look, that girl/guy in the bathroom who stared at you for just a little bit longer than what makes you feel comfortable. It is like you are a human tornado mad at anyone and everyone in your path. You really don’t want to spend that $25 on something you are convinced you will find.

  4. Depression (and maybe a little reflection) Just when you think you already took all that anger out on your best friend (on the phone of course) and there is a glimpse of light giving you the illusion that everything is going to be okay, the depression sets in. Your emotions start to get the best of you and you may even cry a little because at this stage, you begin to realize everything that is wrong with the world and you just want to be home wrapped up in your mom’s/best friend’s/sibling’s arms. This is also the point at which amongst tears and spoons of ice cream/bites of chocolate that you start to think about how you need to change some things about yourself and be more responsible; you just aren’t cutting it as an adult and you need to get your act together.

  5. The Upward Turn This is the point where you start to try and get your act together to get over the fact that you still have no idea where the hell your husky card is hiding from you. This is probably when you clean your room and maybe even your apartment. You also decide it is time you reorganize the fridge (and maybe even the entire kitchen). You have just realized that this isn’t the end of the world and you try to make up for this loss by fixing everything else that you think is wrong with your life; you are after all on your way to becoming an independent adult.

  6. Reconstruction and Working through You check your debit card balance, your wallet, and that secret place where you hide your extra cash; you are trying to find your card. You have lost any and all patience when it comes to the extensive process of swiping into your dorm and you feel bad because of all of the writing that those poor proctors have to go through because you still can’t find your husky card. It is almost like it got up and ran away. You are trying to see where those golden $25 are going to come from. https://twitter.com/NUHuskyCard/status/831514900061155328

  7. Acceptance and Hope You lined up to get your new husky card because you simply couldn’t take it anymore. You unwillingly paid the fee, and you are over it. You really just want to go take a nap somewhere. Don’t mistake the hope in this stage to be hope that you will be moving forward or hope that this won’t happen again. No no no no no. Right now you are hoping that you don’t find your old husky card and that you truly lost it, otherwise all of this would’ve been for nothing. It’s okay, no judgement here, you are a college student after all.

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Nadine El-Bawab

Northeastern

Double major in Journalism and Political Science Originally from Cairo, Egypt Figure Skater and Soccer Player. Love both reading and writing. Feel free to email me at any time. el-bawab.n@husky.neu.edu