I had never heard of Hurricane Florence until Monday morning, as I walked to my communications class. My professor talked to us about natural disasters in the news and how to best report hard facts as opposed to sharing fake photos and news reports. Little did I know, I would be watching those news reports closely for the next several days, and they would change the course of my week.

I currently attend Elon University, a North Carolina school about 200 miles inland, and yet, all of us were instructed that if we had the means to evacuate, we should do so by Wednesday evening. The school was closed Thursday and Friday to brace for impact. As 4,000 of us scattered away from the state of North Carolina, I thought about all the other people all along the East Coast, and up to 200 miles inland from it, evacuating as well. If you were one of those one million people who evacuated this past week, you probably shared these 15 thoughts.

1. "Should I have just stayed and had a hurricane party?"

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2. "No, no, I need to leave. I can't die before I graduate."

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3. "How can all of the gas stations just run out of gas?"

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4. "Do I have enough food? I'm for sure gonna need more snacks."

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5. "What if the windows break into my house and everything floods?"

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6. "Ok, two hours of driving done, four more to go!"

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7. "I guess it's good that all these people are moving to safety, but they could move a little faster."

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8. "We have listened to 'It's Rainin' Men' at least five times now."

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9. "Let me check and see where the hurricane is again."

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10. "All of my Facebook feed is just events to scare away Florence with Nickelback music."

https://www.facebook.com/1955081984707879/photos/gm.394448391091933/2173232069559535/?type=3&theater

11. "Do you think Starbucks will be open in the tropical storm?"

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12. "How are we going to get home?"

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13. "How do my professors expect me to do makeup work without wifi?"

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14. "What will we do all day if the power goes out? I can only play Monopoly for so long."

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15. "Exploring my roommate's safe, sunny city makes evacuating kinda fun. Do it again this time next week?"

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