This past Monday was Expo day. For me, a lowly freshman, this was significant in a few ways: one, it was, of course, going to be my first Expo, and I didn't
really know what to expect; and two, it was going to be the first time I would leave Olin for more than a week. Because my dad would be coming up for Expo, I was going to be leaving that day. I wasn't going to have time afterward to hang out with my friends. Thus, I vowed to get relatively little sleep so that I could make the best of the time I had left.
So the night before, what started as a midnight birthday dance party in the West Hall antilounge slowly morphed into an enormous blues dance party. Many of us were already regular dancers; others had never danced a day in their lives.
Before we knew it, it was 3:00 in the morning, and the music was still playing. I wandered off and wound up watching a movie with the few hours I had left until morning. Finally, at quarter after 5, it was bedtime.
Three hours later, I had to wake up. My Expo schedule was going to be jam-packed: at 8:30, before Expo even started, I would have rehearsal and sound check for ORO, the Olin Rock Orchestra. This would go right up until ORO's performance at 10. After ORO, I would have to run over to the academic center to rehearse for the WiReD Event (basically a performance of the compositions that my music class had created over the last month). The WiReD rehearsal would run right up until noon, when the actual performance was. Right when the performance ended, at 1, I would have to run to a different corner of the academic center in order to present my Modeling and Simulation project. Finally, after my project presentation, I would have to run to Milas Hall for the Olin Conductorless Orchestra's rehearsal and subsequent performance. When OCO was through performing, Expo would be over.
In other words, I was busy for the next six-and-a-half hours.
On three hours' sleep.
Great planning, Greg.
Fortunately, the first hour turned out to be the hardest. Once I found a few minutes to run to the dining hall and shove some cereal in my mouth, I was awake enough for the rest of the day. I even managed to talk my WiReD professor into letting me run over to the dining hall for ten minutes to grab some lunch. Despite my poor sleeping habits, Expo ran very smoothly overall. Our performances went phenomenally (for the most part), and people seemed generally interested in my ModSim presentation - or if not, they were pretty good at faking it. At 3:00, though, I was ready to just sit down.
My dad advised me that we would either have to leave before 4:30 or after 6:30 to avoid traffic. Because I hadn't yet packed my bags, I told him it would have to be after 6:30. (Besides that, I wanted extra time to say my goodbyes.) I spent the next fair while packing, until it was finally dinnertime, and then time to go.
Dinner took a fair while, due to a combination of the facts that it always does when I'm not in a rush, and that I was sort of trying to delay my departure. Eventually, though, my time came. I had to file out. When I stood up to leave, the twenty-odd people at my table all crowded around me, and I spent the next several minutes hugging each and every one of them goodbye.
After an absurdly long time, I was gone. I treated myself to a nap in the car. After all, it was an exhausting day.
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