<human>: I am a student entering my senior year of college. I have a few research projects going at the moment, the bulk of which (i.e. papers and many of the sources) I keep a few folders down in a folder called "School." Two fun things happen now:
-All of my digital college career is stored in that folder.
-I cannot find that folder.

Closest I can figure is I accidentally dumped it in the recycling bin and later emptied that bin. I had it backed up, but my flash drive is MIA (I'm holding out hope for these searching eyes to finally find it).

So, the question is: **is there any way to recover data once it's been emptied from the trash?** It doesn't seem like there ought to be, but I'm certain a great number of you know a great deal more than me about computers, and maybe there is.

Three final things:
-I'm using an Intel MacBook, v. 10.5.8, if that's relevant.
-I've already posted this to r/mac, but I figured it couldn't hurt to post here as well. If this isn't the proper forum, tell me where to go.
-Fuck.

Could you distill the essence of the text into 1-3 sentences?
<bot>: In a move of exceeding clumsiness, I seemingly irrevocably trashed a pretty important folder. Is there any way to get it back?