On March 30, 2017, I got up at the disturbing hour of 4:50 am. Why would a college student ever want to be up this early? The only logical reason would be to go to a practice of some sort if you are an athlete, but still. This is a horrible time to wake up. However, I had good reason to.
By 5:15, I had to be out on Loyola University Maryland's quad in order to register to break a world record. The Today Show's Al Roker was doing his Rokerthon where he has college campuses try to beat world records, and even though we are a small school, Loyola was chosen!
Students had to sign up to say they would break the world record of most people crab walking for 2 minutes (lol at how we are in Maryland, and this was the record), but only the first 500 people could participate. So, my roommate and I got up early, put on Loyola gear and went to the quad.
By the time we got there, there were already a lot of people, but yes, we got in. We got a special colored shirt for what group we were in, and they even had a little crab on them!
We got in at about 6 am, but we were not crab walking and breaking the record until 8 am. There were A LOT of people there, meanwhile the sun was still rising. Talk about Loyola spirit!
During this wait, there was some food, and we got to see the one and only Al Roker himself! Students gathered around as he went live on the Today Show making his entrance, and we cheered for our peers who were able to perform and participate in it all! It was a once in a lifetime experience. I got in the front at one point while Al was doing his greyhound entrance, and me and the mascot of Loyola, Iggy, tried to get a selfie.
Even though it seemed like we had forever to start crab walking, the time went by really fast. Soon enough, we had the Guinness World Record guy, Michael, telling us the rules. We could not stop, and out butts could not touch the ground. There were people walking around making sure you didn't, and if you did, you were disqualified. At one point, he asked "What can't touch the ground?" to which about 500 students yelled, "Butts!" I have a feeling they did that on purpose.
When we were all on the ground, a flag was waved, a bullhorn was blown and off we went!
While participating in this, I realized that it was a little more difficult than I thought. However, I had to persevere, I mean, I wanted to say I broke a world record! After two minutes, we had finally finished! All students were told to sit down and stay in their spots while they tallied the people, and gave out two prizes.
The prizes were two $5,000 scholarships for two of the participants. One was from Loyola, and the other was given by the Today Show from Pure Point Financial.
The President of Loyola picked two names out of a large box that contained all the names of the participants in the event. The first name was called for the Today Show scholarship, and the girl who won was right in the front. Everyone on the quad cheered as she went up saying how awesome it was. The second name was called, and it was mine.
My name was said (correctly which is surprising) on live TV. Oh, and I had just won a scholarship! I never win anything, so I was shocked. The worst part, however, was that I was all the way in the back. As in, I was on the other side of the quad. While the other girl, Grace, had a short run up, there I was running through sitting people, nervous and shocked and trying to hold onto my phone and ID card in my sweatshirt pocket. To say the least, now about four million people know how awkward and uncomfortable of a human being I am. Really, watch the video. I hope I turn into a meme. It is that horrible. I get called at about minute 3:47.
Here is grace and I standing with a (her) check! (Mine is from Loyola so no big check for me but we still both won $5,000!).
So, my parents are at home in New Jersey getting texts from all their friends and seeing their daughter on national TV. Pretty cool way to be a freshman in college and for that to happen, am I right?
In the end, we beat the world record! 494 people crab walking for 2 minutes! You can watch the whole experience in the video I attached to show my awkward life. 
Honestly, this was a day I will remember. A day I broke a world record with hundreds of fellow Greyhounds, won a scholarship and had my few minutes of fame on live TV. Go Greyhounds, and Thanks Al for coming!
The fifth and ninth photos were taken from the Today Show's website. All rights go to them. You can view the article they wrote about the day here.
