The Best and Worst Decision

I was eating lunch the other day with a couple of my friends and we happened to look at one of the many “table tents” sitting in front of us. It was about poverty awareness week which intrigued me, so I read on. There were going to be numerous activities but the one that interested me most was a sleep out in front of the Campanile that night. My urge to be spontaneous overcame me once again. How often do you get to sleep outside on central campus in the middle of the week and in a cardboard box nonetheless while raising awareness for a good cause? Sounded like a pretty good idea to me so I asked my friends if they would maybe be up for a little campout and surprisingly they all said yes and rather quickly. I was energized by their speedy reaction and started asking all of my friends that I came into contact with if they would be up for joining us. Most of them said no, but I had a few excited yeses.

I was fully aware that there was still snow on the ground in some areas and that the ground was most likely going to be wet and cold, but nothing that a lot of layers and a cozy sleeping bag could not beat out. Not only was there snow, I had been up since six o’clock that morning and would have to be up and ready by 6:45 the next day, but I was not about to let the weather or sleepiness take away this once in a lifetime opportunity, so the plans continued.

The event technically started at three that afternoon, but we decided there was no way we were all going to sit by the Campanile all day and all night and so we went back to our rooms and were productive instead. More like being productive for what I was going to not be experiencing much of and slept for two hours then showered and got all geared up with three sweatshirts, my winter coat, warm socks, boots and my sleeping bag and headed out to meet with the rest of the crew at 11:30. The two guys that were going to be tagging along were only wearing a long sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes with a towel as their sleeping materials. I offered to let them use my blankets that were back in my room, but they wanted to prove that they were real men and refused after they found out there was pink in the blanket (heaven forbid). I knew right away they were going to be sorry, but I decided not to say anything and to let them figure it out on their own time. They should know that the girl is always right. ;)

We trekked on over around midnight to find that most everyone had gone to sleep. We chatted with a girl who informed us that our cardboard box beds had been transformed into one massive cardboard mansion and that it was completely full. But she had a tarp! Shortly after we realized we could not fit all five of us on her feeble little blue tarp so we went with plan C…garbage bags. We ventured out about twenty yards from the cardboard mansion so we would not wake anyone and set up camp laying out thirteen even flimsier white garbage bags to separate us from the damp ground. My roommate Kara and I set pulled out our sleeping bags and the guys, Michael and Meng, their towels and flimsy blanket and got settled in for the night but not before talking for two hours or so and not to mention a little tree climbing and rabbit and raccoon chasing. None of us were used to going to bed much before one but the cold air held our senses at a peak. Finally around 2:30 or so, we all hit the hay and using my arm as my pillow and Kara as an extra source of heat and I think I gradually faded away trying to block out every thought of being cold and hoping sleep would make me forget.

Miraculously we all woke up simultaneously. With teeth chattering, Michael asked, “What’s the time? Is it almost 6 yet?” My hand ventured out of my sleeping bag to find my phone and it read 3:23. *@#!%#&@!!! We all started freaking out wondering how in the world it could only be 3:30. Poor Meng was about to get frostbite on his toes since he was only wearing one sock…which I still do not understand how someone could forget to put on the other…but he did. Mine were freezing and I was wearing wool socks and inside of a sleeping bag, I do not know how he made it even that long. At that point, we knew we were not going to make it all the way through the night lying outside under the stars, so we had to come up with a plan. Do we go all the way to our dorms, do we sleep on a bench in front of Carver where we had to be at 7 o’clock the next morning, or do we go hibernate in the MU for a couple of hours? We chose the latter.

We scrounged up all of our things and I noticed that my alarm clock had started crystallizing and my shoes were stiff from frost. I did not even bother rolling up my sleeping bag as I darted towards the MU. I just wanted to be in the warmth again. We found a space in the Sun Room and decided to make our new camp for the night on a few couches. I did not fully realize how cold I was until I could not stop shivering for thirty minutes after getting inside. I slept in all of the layers I had on while outside and inside of my sleeping bag and was just beginning to thaw out by the time I started to fade.

I am woken by a rustling bag followed by a loud crashing and colliding of bottles behind me. I was too scared to really look up to see who was in the room because I was afraid that if I made eye contact with whoever this was we would get kicked out and it was only 6 in the morning so I hid my face in my sleeping bag. The person then started vacuuming which made any hope of sleeping disappear. By this point I realized this person was the janitor and not an actual homeless man picking up pop bottles. He wanted to make sure we were awake and he did a very good job of it by deciding to vacuum around our heads. Finally he left and we all popped our heads out from under our assorted bedding in a daze not really sure what just happened or what to say to each other about what just happened, so we just laid our heads back down for another 45 minutes or so when my no longer crystallized clock gave us another rude awakening. I popped up quickly from my sleep and turned off my obnoxious alarm with surprising energy. Slowly the rest came to life and stared at me with their squinty eyes asking if 6:45 had really come, but this time with less optimism. I sadly had to inform them that this time it was so we packed up all of our things and headed out to Carver for a meeting.

We walked in with all of our gear and sleepy faces and immediately got interesting stares and questions. I think I told the story ten times in a matter of five minutes, but I did not particularly mind. The meeting finally started and I was surprisingly not feeling the effect of the lack of sleep the night before. I looked down the row to see how Kara, Michael and Meng were doing and they all three had their heads down on the table. I could not help but let out a little giggle. Although I was amazed that I did not do the head bob during the meeting, the sensation did not hold off much longer. As soon as I set foot in my 8 o’clock class, it was bad news. My eyes were closing and I was not even aware. I barely managed to make it to my 9 o’clock class before I went back to my room and took a two hour nap. It felt glorious and I was once again revived and able to reflect on the experience to its fullest.

I was kind of proud what we had done, although we wimped out and slept inside of the MU, that was beside the point. We did it for a good cause and donated a few dollars to The Emergency Residence Project. But what was even more rewarding to me than that was that created closer friendships, a good story and some pretty amazing memories that will most likely stay with me for as long as I live as one of the stupidest yet best decisions of my college career.