You're walking to your 11 a.m. class and suddenly you hear that familiar yet ominous word in the chatter of the students around you. Hurricane. You frantically pull your phone out of your pocket and pull up weather.com and sure enough, a huge, scary, swirly mass somewhere off in the Atlantic Ocean is the first thing you see.
As a university located on the East Coast, we see our fair share of weird weather, from freezing coastal wind in the winter to crazy hurricanes in the fall. Hurricane Joaquin's location and questionable pattern of movement had students at universities all along the East Coast wondering what in the world was going to happen this weekend. Experiencing a hurricane (or the potential of a hurricane) in college can only mean a few things.
1. The exciting potential of cancelled classes.
As soon as you realize there is a slim chance your horrible 8 a.m. lab will be cancelled due to the hurricane, you suddenly don't care about the potential life-threatening flash flooding the meteorologist on TV just mentioned. You do the hurricane dance instead.
2. You start making plans.
Whether you make the bold decision to stay in town and have a hurricane party with your friends or head back home to the safety of your mom's cooking, your plans were underway in your mind as soon as you heard the first weather report. Checking your school's homepage for the evacuation decision has all of a sudden become way more important than doing your research paper.
3. Things may get a little crazy.
Maybe you and your friends just decided overnight to become storm chasers and head to the beach to take crazy snapchats of the angry surf. Maybe you start scoping out spots to go mud sliding on campus. Or maybe you just want to put on your rain gear and splash around in some puddles around campus. Either way, a hurricane can put some crazy ideas on the table.
4. You get concerned about food supply.
As college students, this is our biggest concern when faced with a hurricane. A short supply of Oreos, peanut butter, bread and ramen means trouble. You may need to run out to the grocery store so you can face the impending doom with a full stomach.
5. You receive frantic calls and texts from your parents.
For some of you, I'm sure your parents are the ones who told you about the storm in the first place. Your parents may try to bribe you to go home or go inland, somewhere far away from the eye of the storm. You start to get really confused when they start rattling off things you should have in your emergency kit. "No, Mom, we do not keep flares in the apartment..."
Stay safe, kids.
