Even in the midst of our garbage dump news cycle, it’s nice to know that there’s still some lovely, bright spots of humanity in the world.
Recently, Anne-Marie Downes, a university student in Durham, England, took to Twitter with an unfortunate plight: her bag was stolen, and it contained all of her notes for her upcoming finals.
1/: Hi Twitter – I’d be very grateful if people could share this thread! TL;DR: A bag was stolen from me in Durham yesterday and it contained nearly all my notes and work for my finals, which are in six weeks. I’m hoping they dumped the bag/contents and someone may find them.
— Anne-Marie Downes (@am_downes) April 8, 2018
2/: Yesterday (Sat 7th April) between 12 and 3pm our car was broken into in Durham in the car park in Pimlico, just off Prebends Bridge. My rucksack with my laptop, some other electronics and a lot of notebooks and folders containing two years’ worth of uni work was stolen.
— Anne-Marie Downes (@am_downes) April 8, 2018
Anne-Marie asked her Twitter followers to keep an eye out for the stolen bag, in the hopes that the thief merely nabbed the electronics and left the notes elsewhere.
3/: Finals are in six weeks’ time and I really need my lecture, tutorial and revision notes. I am hoping that whoever stole my bag will have removed the electronics and then dumped the rest somewhere – we found my pencil case in a nearby bush but unfortunately nothing else.
— Anne-Marie Downes (@am_downes) April 8, 2018
4/: If you live in or around the Durham/Sunderland area, I’d be really grateful if you could keep an eye out for the bag or the notebooks and papers (description below), especially in bins, secluded wooded areas or general wasteland.
— Anne-Marie Downes (@am_downes) April 8, 2018
In a heartening display of support, Twitter rallied to help this stressed out college student with her finals.
Academic Twitter, let’s channel our collective hopes for a happy ending for this student. #SaveAMsdegree https://t.co/ntfoXoxnCx
— Pearadocs (@pearadocs) April 9, 2018
Internet, do your thing ? pic.twitter.com/gkvbpajiKi
— Jaime Lopez (@Lopeezie) April 9, 2018
I shall be walking that way tomorrow, I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Good luck
— Mark W. (@DurhamWASP) April 8, 2018
By the stone stile? Possibly dumped in the woods beside Durham School or on South Banks. I’ll have a quick look in the morning.
— Anthony Veitch (@tonyveitchuk) April 8, 2018
Former students even offered up their own notes from past semesters, in the hope that they might prove useful.
I’ve got ethics, philosophy of religion, and sociology that I can pass your way ☺ graduated ox ppe 2016 but things can’t have changed that much… Let me know how best to send them over
— Sandy Downs (@sandy_downs) April 9, 2018
Can send a couple of those across. Graduated 2015. Lmk how!
— Ben Goldstein (@bgolds12) April 9, 2018
Oxford PPE grad from 2010 (oldddd…). Still have some revision notes / essays from a few of those papers (Inc. Phil of Religion, I think). Will send over tomorrow morning to your newly set up address.
— Conor McGloin (@conormcgloin) April 9, 2018
Anne-Marie says that she was overwhelmed by the number of kind responses, and even joked about starting the hashtag #SaveAMsDegree.
An update for all the lovely people who have been asking: nothing has been found yet unfortunately (although with this many people helping I have hope!) but people who are doing/have done the same course as me have been sending me their own notes which is incredibly kind ❤
— Anne-Marie Downes (@am_downes) April 9, 2018
I’m so so grateful to everyone sharing this and giving advice, especially to those who have said they live in the area and can have a look around! You are all such wonderful people, thank you so much <3
— Anne-Marie Downes (@am_downes) April 9, 2018
By and large, humans can be pretty awful — but every now and then, some of them really come through and surprise you.