Saturday morning after a good night’s rest.
Wait.
Are those broken eggs on my floor?
The previous night…
I woke up in the middle of the night on Friday to racket in the hallway. I started to turn over and try to go back to bed, but I realized the door was wide open to my room. I looked down and my roommate was asleep on her bed. I figured she had accidently not shut the door all the way when she had come back from her night out. That night was the first time I slept in my lofted bed and debated for a decent amount of time if shutting the door was worth making the awkward climb down the footboard half asleep. Luckily, my hall mate returned and wonderfully shut my door for me.
Flash-forward…
I had been up and about the dorm for a while before my roommate woke up. She was the one who made the discovery. As she was picking up her clothes from the previous night she found the little ‘treasures’ nestled beside. Then things began to click. We never lock the door at night, thinking that as long as one of us was in the room it wouldn’t be a problem. It also made it easier on my roommate, not having to take her key when she went out on the weekends. This turned out to be a mistake. From the time she had returned and before my hall mate came back someone had opened the door to our room and thrown eggs inside.
Once my roommate and I collected ourselves from shock and commenced:
We decided we really needed to call someone and report it. So I went out into our hallway and found the number for non-emergency security. It went to voicemail. I then decided to call the CA on duty; that also was a bust. So I shot a note to our CA and posted a warning on our Shortside Pride Facebook group.
Then came the actual fun of cleaning.
Afterward, my roommate and I kept on asking ourselves: Why? Why did someone do this? Who could we have pissed off? Neither of us thought we had friends who thought it would be funny to prank us, so why did whoever did this, decide on us? Turns out we were the only ones hit and we weren’t the only ones who left their door unlocked. Was it some drunk people who got the wrong room? We couldn’t answer any of these questions.
Our CA responded to my post on Facebook:
“Andrea I’m so sorry this happened. I will definitely be filing a report and if there’s a possibility we can tie similar incidents or information together to find out who was responsible, they will be punished. I have absolutely no tolerance for this kind of endangerment and vandalism. I will be working with security and ResLife to see if they have any information. I’m sorry we live in a community where we have to keep our doors locked for fear of incidents like this. You all should feel safe anywhere on campus, especially within your own dorms. If anyone has any information about suspicious activity or individuals, please let me know in person or via message. If anyone affected needs any help with cleaning or needs any supplies, I can help out. If anyone would like to talk, feel free to message me or meet with me later today. Be safe and look out for each other.”
My roommate began to feel like everything was being blown out of proportion. She was just aggravated that someone would egg us. She didn’t feel violated, and neither did I, to an extent. These were probably just some drunk pranksters…but what if they hadn’t been. What if they had other intentions? We were dead asleep and the door was wide open for anyone. I’m not saying it was likely for anything to happen, but the “what if” stuck to me. For me, our CA’s response was a reassurance. Yes, it was just an egging, but he said it was okay for us to feel violated and that he was there for us if we needed him. It was almost a balm to my rising nerves.
We were aggravated. I was nervous. This was crap, but sadly, I realized, it was just another “perk” to college dorm life.
College Life Lesson?
“Lock your doors” means at all times, not just when you’re gone.