I was supposed to get free chocolate. I mean, that’s what the website promised if I made an account and signed up for newsletters. To me, the expectation of said chocolate was worth the five minutes it took to get said account. The password was the trickiest part because it called for an upper and lowercase letter, special character and even the bat symbol. I created a password and went on with my day with the overwhelming excitement of one day receiving free chocolate.

A few months later, I received an email from the now forgotten free chocolate website. It said that if I downloaded the app and logged in, I’d earn points toward the free chocolate. At first, I was annoyed because I felt as if I had been taken for a fool. Come on, months passed by and all I got were emails I completely ignored. Where was the free chocolate? And now I had to earn points to get the free chocolate? However, the words ‘free chocolate’ pulled me the way the ring captured Gollum, so I downloaded the app.

But what was the password?

I tried several words with no success. Maybe I stored it in my phone’s notes? Nope. All I found there were abandoned story ideas. Maybe I wrote it in my planner? I write all kinds of things in there. It would definitely be in there. A quick check and…nope. I didn’t write it down. What mystery have I embarked upon? What phrase did my mind compute and forget?

I could reset the password, but that would take too long. A whole thirty seconds to type in my email address, thirty seconds to wait for the link to arrive, then a new minute trying to figure out a new password, then logging in again. Too much work. I wasn’t in the mood to complete all those steps. I mean seriously, it’s a major drain on my patience.

The only logical step was to delete the app and forget the points for free chocolate. Yes, I was disappointed, but who wants to work so hard for mere points?

This “free chocolate” password problem happens to me with other sites as well. Sometimes I’ll use the same password on multiple platforms because I know I won’t forget it; however, I’ll confuse myself when I change one symbol for another site and then forget which site I used it for in the first place. I’ve heard it’s bad to use the same passwords because a hacker could easily get into all your accounts, but that hacker has no idea how hard it is to harvest all this password gobbledy gook. I bought one of those password notebooks, but it turned into a password graveyard.

I never learn my lesson and the cycle repeats. I forget important passwords and forget where I wrote them down. What’s worse? When my computer remembers all my passwords and then one day doesn’t remember me anymore. Why can’t my computer just think for me?

For comments/questions about this story, email features@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.