In Decatur, a train rolls by campus every morning at 4 a.m. like clockwork and blares its horn for all students to hear. On the early morning of September 1st, it was like every other early morning with the train passing by with its obnoxious alarm. As an extremely light sleeper, I sighed and woke up but soon fell back asleep with the fans in my dorm humming softly in the background. I woke up about an hour later with the room still dark but saw something that made my heart drop.
(Picture by Mat Reding on Unsplash)
Someone was walking by the end of my bed and around my dresser. They were so quiet I didn’t even notice that a person had been walking around. In my tired state, I pushed the thought around that it was just my roommate walking around. It was odd that she had been walking near my bed but I closed my eyes and turned over to the wall.
Suddenly, a random girl grabbed my legs and stomach and tried to pull herself into my bed. I screamed and grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her off my bed. I shouted, “What are you doing?!” and she simply replied with, “Someone led me to the wrong room.” I told her what room this was and with my adrenaline still pumping I sat up in my bed, completely shocked.
My roommate was in shock as she woke up later into my confrontation with the random person and we both silently spoke in disbelief. We didn’t lock the door that night and it is safe to say we will never make that mistake again. Now we’re both paranoid that something similar will happen. We soon discovered that the girl who came into our room was someone’s guest and she was most likely disoriented by something. It was even scarier because we didn’t even hear the door open or notice someone exploring our room.
Although the situation isn’t very serious, it was still frightening and stress-inducing when it happened. And a little piece of advice to all dorm residents who have guests over; please make sure you let your guests know what room you’re in and that it’s not okay to wander into other people’s room at 5 a.m. if they don’t know them.
(Picture by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash)