My most vivid experience working at the StudioLab occurred during the first semester of my junior year. It was only my second semester working there, and I found my job becoming a more and more important part of my life as the year progressed. I was working a lot of hours, but I also became better friends with my co-workers and I spent work time, study time, and some leisure time all in the comfort of the SL.

Midway through the semester, a group of students came into the StudioLab for help on a video project they were making. It was a national contest, I think, and had something to do with sustainability. The students came in almost every single day for weeks. I literally saw them every shift, and I was in the SL almost every night. Their dedication was nice to see, especially because the project wasn’t for a grade. I, along with several other consultants, helped them with specific problems, commiserated with them over mild failures, and cheered happily every time a milestone was achieved on the project.

But, just as they neared the final stages of their video, the files mysteriously disappeared off of the computer. It was an absolute disaster. The clients were frustrated and even angry at the SL consultants for losing the project. They had put in hours and hours of work on the video and thought they had a good chance at winning the contest. Now all the work was for nothing. I tried frantically to recover the video, searching random folders and file names and even downloading file recovery software. But, in the end, the video was just gone.

I had been updating the computers (including the one their video was stored on) earlier that day and, although everyone assured me there was no way my actions could have caused the loss of the video, I still felt bad. I was sure it was my fault. I was already stressed out about my own personal school and extracurricular commitments, but losing their video project sent me over the edge. I literally left work in tears because I was so upset about losing it, and I’m sure that was only a fraction of the frustration and disappointment those clients felt.

I’m choosing to recount this particular story because it demonstrates what being a SL consultant means to me. Everyone wants to succeed at their job and help the people they’re supposed to be helping, but it’s an even bigger issue for StudioLab consultants. We are helping our peers with writing and multimedia projects that are usually for a grade. We play an integral role in their success or failure, because it is our responsibility to save them time and energy by doing our jobs correctly. It’s a lot of pressure, and I don’t think I fully realized that until the first time I failed to help someone.

Sometimes I’m surprised how much this job means to me, as cheesy as that sounds. For me, every day in the StudioLab is a chance to help someone. My personal shortcomings have to be overcome; if I don’t know how to perform a certain action in Photoshop, I have to learn- and quickly- because there is a client sitting in front of me who needs help. Knowing that his or her personal success is directly tied to me is a great motivator for continuing to work at improving my skills as a consultant. As I said before, it can sometimes be a lot of pressure. But, ultimately, I think the varying needs of our many clients push me to be better, both at my job and at finding creative solutions to problems in general.