Western New England University had its first power outage of the year on October 27- ironically the same day that the October Nor'easter hit 5 years ago that made my town lose power for 2 weeks.
The day before my mom, from back in Connecticut, warned me that Springfield was going to get hit with the "wintery mix"- basically a lot of snow/freezing rain/wind that would make the area disgusting. I did not believe her until the next day when I was walking to the dining hall and slowly but surely, snowflakes began to fall.
"It's only October. It's too early for snow." Matt, my friend who is also from Connecticut, said to me as we began walking faster to the dining hall for lunch.
Even though we're from CT and early snow is a common thing, he was not happy.
There were multiple mixed reactions about the snow. Some were ecstatic, since some people come from the other side of the US and have never seen snow (oh, you could tell who those people were) and some, mostly the ones from New England, were annoyed by it. Personally, I enjoy the snow as long as I am kept warm (girl with low iron problems) and I do not have to go outside. My classes for the rest of the day happened to be cancelled, so staying inside and warm was exactly my plan.
It was about 4:30 when I was in my room, working on an essay due the following morning. My lights went off, my microwave beeped a couple times before shutting down, and my laptop quickly lost WiFi. I let out a loud groan before grabbing my keys so I could go out into the hallway to see if anyone else lost power.
The emergency hallway lights were on, and there were a few girls standing in the hallway, letting out their frustration and confusion over losing power. Immediately my phone started going off, and one of the group chats I am in went crazy.
My friend tripped in the dark and shattered her laptop, another one stubbed her toe and was convinced it was broken, followed by another friend of mine breaking his vape. We quickly learned we are helpless without power, and that it was going to be a very long day.
I quickly came to realize that I did not come to college ready to take on any sort of campus emergency like this. I did not have a portable phone charger, a flashlight or lantern, batteries, and other necessities needed for when the power goes out. I knew that I probably was not the only one who was like this, but it made me realize that I should have stuff around.
My friend, Riley, and I decided to go get dinner at the dining hall, before they ran out of food. The dining hall itself had no power, but they were still serving the food that they prepared for the dinner wave. We were warned that once it was out, it was out, and we should get to it as soon as we could. Riley and I had to use our phone's flashlights in order to get food, and we got a good couple laughs from the staff as well. We managed to get room temperature pasta, with sauce that was being heated by those gas burners you put under serving trays. As soon as we got food on our plates, the staff began running around and replaced the everyday plates with paper plates and plastic cups and silverware.
The walk back was slippery and wet, and so we literally had to shuffle our feet in some areas of campus while heading back to Berkshire Hall. Most buildings on campus had their emergency lights on, which gave us false hope about the power being back while we were walking back. Of course, guys were seen in the snow drawing male genitalia with their feet and some people were wearing shorts. Typical college experience.
It got to be 8 pm, and there was still no power. I went to my friends room, where she was in a towel. She looked at me and said "You're gonna wanna take a shower now, we have no idea when the hot water will run out or when the power will be back on (especially since the last time I lost power, we were in the dark for 2 weeks) She had a point, and I haven't showered yet that day, so I went to my room to get my shower supplies. After a quick selfie with us in our towels in the pitch black shower, I went to another shower to attempt to take a shower.
Syd and I weren't thrilled about showering in the dark
The water was cold at first, which scared me (remembering that Berk lost hot water 2 weeks ago) but I was shocked to find that the water was still steaming hot. Given that when I was on the guys' floor an hour before to grab a snack from my friend, all of the guys were bolting to the showers in their towels to get to the hot water. Thank you 3rd floor Berk for saving us hot water!
My roommate went to her boyfriend's house off campus to study for an exam since he had power, so that left me alone in my room. For once since going to college, I fell asleep at nine, and it was quite peaceful since there was no loud music being blasted from the common room across the hall (a common thing). My boyfriend, who goes to school 45 minutes away, joked about me being alone in the dark, but I found it to be okay. The entire campus was quiet, which is a first.
The power came on while I was asleep, and I ended up waking up at 4 am to get my essay done. By the time I was up and running for breakfast, the snow was gone and it looked like nothing happened.
The dining hall was open, and classes resumed as normal. This experience made me realize that since I am an adult, I'll need to be more ready for these sorts of things, and sometimes, being in the dark can be fun.
The morning after made it look as though nothing even happened.
