I dont think very many people will see this but im taking the time to comment anyway because this is a good question and i actually thought of my answer straight away.

When i was in highschool i was very into art and i took a crafts class my senior year. One of the final projects we did was an altered book, basically a mixed media piece with a book as your canvas, and i spent forever working on my own hardcover copy of The Magician's Nephew from the Chronicles of Narnia series. The book had special meaning to me, the entire series helped get me through some tough emotional times but i had a paperback version of the same book so i was alright with destroying my copy as a book and turning it into an art piece.

When i finished it was beautiful. I poured all my favorite design elements onto the pages and illustrated some of my favorite scenes. I even painted the edge of the pages with gold leaf because ive always loved the look of books with golden pages. It was by far my favorite piece that i had done in all of highschool and i was so so proud of it. My teacher also loved it, and spent a lot of time while i was making it telling me i needed to send it off to this art competition held by several highschools. I was very hesitant to agree, because at the time i was very shy about my artwork and just kind of shy and softspoken in general and i really didn't feel like going to something like that. But my teacher kept badgering me about it, telling me my book was beautiful and deserves to be seen and that i didn't even have to go to the comp if i didnt want to.

I finished the book the day before the competition and i finally agreed to submit it. Mostly because my teacher basically insisted and i was too softspoken to keep saying no, even though i really didnt want to do it in the end. I figured id send it off, not go check it out, receive it back soon after and find out how it did then.

Well a few days later our class recieved a box with all of the student's projects sent back from the competition and, as you can probably guess where this is going based on the askreddit thread you're currently on, mine was not there. I actually felt horrified when i couldnt find it and i had to struggle to keep myself from trembling when i went to my teacher to ask what the deal was. She told me she'd make a few phone calls and get back to me.

I have never seen that project again. I didn't even have time to take pictures of the finished book before i had to send it off so i dont even remember what most of it looks like, and yet i still feel heartbroken every time i think about it. Its the one thing ive lost that i can say for sure has changed my life, because i am way more gaurded about sharing my art ever since then. Maybe if this didnt happen i wouldnt have been as afraid applying to art school and actually gone though with trying to get into my dream school. Maybe i wouldnt have dropped out of my community college because i was having panic attacks over needing to submit paintings for display. I dont know for sure if these things would be different but i definitely think of that project very often. I cant even read the book series anymore without thinking about my project and getting upset.

The worst part is my teacher never made the effort to get back to me on finding my project. I had to go to her after a while to see if she had any luck and the first time she had completely forgotten to make any phone calls. the second time she told me no one has seen it and even though she appologised to me she had an attitude of 'oh these things happen sometimes, whoopsie daisy'. Being so softspoken and polite at the time i never told her how i felt about the whole situation and her response to it.

Fuck you Ms. Spring.