College in the twenty first century is very different to how things used to be. With digital tests, software to detect AI and the banning of everything from phones to smart watches in exam rooms, there’s no question that technology has changed how assessments work, causing a headache for administrators who need to check that their students aren’t cheating.

But there’s also no question that technology has made plenty of things a lot easier. Research is wonderfully simpler now that we can access internet databases of articles and textbooks rather than having to physically locate and leaf through them in a library. We can present our work better, and the ability to type our our essays instead of handwriting them is certainly a welcome change.

And there is one more bonus that plenty forget about: the ability to back up that precious work so that if it does inadvertently get deleted, it can still be re-accessed, saving a whole lot of time, energy, and heartache. And back in the handwriting days, this is something that the woman in this story would have truly appreciated.

Read on to find out why.

My best friend caused me to fail getting my degree

My best friend has OCD. We used to share an apartment in college and had a rule to leave each other’s rooms alone, no snooping, no stealing, etc.

One day she texted me, asking to borrow my charger. I told her yes, and that is was on my desk in my room, next to my jewellery box.

Now, I had a very cluttered desk, but it was organized to me.

But her best friend saw things very differently.

But she didn’t like it, so while I was at work, reorganised my entire desk.

In the process she threw away my handwritten, twelve-page essay on Forensics Toxicology due the next day, thinking it was note scraps from a hyperfocus, since I often had scraps left over.

It was for my finals, I was majoring in Forensic Toxicology and I had already gotten an extension for medical reasons.

To say I was not happy is an understatement. I didn’t realise until the next day and had to go to class empty handed, I was failed.

Yikes. As a result, this student decided to get her revenge.

For the next two months, I started doing small things to mess with her OCD at least daily: snoozing her alarm five minutes to throw off her schedule, switching places of two things on her desk so she can tell something is wrong but it was such a minor thing that she couldn’t figure out what, putting a single pink shirt amoungst her reds in her closet, etc.

Eventually she figured out it was me and talked to me about it.

We made up, apologised for what we did to each other, and are still friends to this day.

I was able to repeat college and graduate early with my degree.

This story really sucks, but it’s great that these two made up in the end.

However, the seriousness of deliberately triggering someone’s diagnosed OCD cannot be understated. It can be traumatising, and so severe that it can be classed as a disability.

If her best friend genuinely had OCD, these ‘pranks’ really aren’t kind.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee whose dietary restrictions caused the whole office to turn against her.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person was on the fence about things.

Though others struggled to believe that anyone would jus thave one copy of a final essay.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought that the friend with OCD was the one in the wrong here.

Sure, the OCD roommate crossed a line in tidying her friend’s room. And by throwing away the paper, she did immeasurable damage to her friend’s education, with expensive consequences. Just throwing someones work – whether scrappy notes or not – is never okay, and she did cross a line.

But what some people may not fully understand is the fact that people with OCD aren’t simply choosing to follow their compulsions because something is a little annoying. It’s a debilitating condition for a reason, and if not well managed, they genuinely cannot help themselves. If the roommate tidied the room and threw away the paper as part of this, she truly meant no harm, and was surely very sorry about it.

Messing with her OCD though really isn’t okay. There’s ways to get revenge, if you really are immature enough to feel that is necessary, without wrecking someone’s mental health in doing so.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who doesn’t want to go to the amusement park with her friend anymore, because the friend can no longer ride most of the attractions.