A college student was forced to beg her professor to allow her to re-sit an exam after a meatball dropped out of the sandwich she was eating and resulted in her flunking a test.
I mean, as far as excuses go it's a pretty unique one, isn't it?
Sam Lee was tucking into a meatball sub while sitting her economics exam last summer, but things took a sharp turn for the worse when an errant meatball bounced out, hit the keyboard, and logged her out of the test prematurely.
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Not ideal.
And things went from bad to worse when she received her marks and found she had been given a failing grade of just 39 percent thanks to the meddling meatball - ouch.
Realising that she needed to do something to attempt to rectify the situation, Sam decided that honesty was the best policy and shared the somewhat embarrassing tale with the professor via email, hoping for an opportunity to take the test over again.
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"I had some technical difficulties and outside distractions during the test today," Sam, a junior at the University of Georgia, wrote in the email.
"Something hit my computer and caused it to submit the test when I had less than half of the questions answered. By something, I mean a meatball that had tragically fallen onto my keyboard as I was taking the exam. This said meatball caused some malfunctions with my laptop and caused the test to submit itself."
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She added: "I completely understand that a falling meatball is no excuse for the failing grade on this exam, but is there any possibility of retaking this test?"
It turned out that her professor was an understanding person - or perhaps the type who had once dropped a meatball on their keyboard, too. He responded the next day to say she could have another stab at the exam.
Her professor replied: "Samantha, well, this is certainly a new and unusual excuse for a low score! But for that reason it seems unlikely you've made this up.
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"I've extended your deadline for the module 6 test until midnight tonight."
He added with a smiling emoji: "I would recommend you take the test either before or after dinner."
Lee shared her story on Twitter, explaining how she was eating a meatball sub while taking the test when a meatball fell onto the keyboard and 'exited out of the test'.
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She also posted screenshots of the amusing exchange with her professor, racking up more than 418,000 likes and 56,000 retweets.
She captioned the post: "Remember in high school teachers would be like 'your college professors will not tolerate this kind of behaviour'."
Many commented to say how kind her professor had been - a sentiment that Lee shares.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, she said: "I was overjoyed with his response."
Lee also confirmed she retook the exam that day, and 'did slightly better'.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/Sam LeeTopics: Viral, Food, Funny, Weird