Students’ Views

Last Friday was Relay for Life, and I joined the APO (Alpha Phi Omega–a service fraternity at SU) group. I had decided to stay the whole night, from 7pm Friday until 7am Saturday morning.

Well, when I got there I caught the end of the “Star Spangled Banner.” The entire football field belonging to Forbes Middle School was packed with people. There were tents, booths, all kinds of things. A lot of kids running around too, unaware of the significance of the event.

In fact, this seemed less like any sort of activism, and more like some kind of local festival. The people, the smells, the socialness of the whole thing just made it seem that way. Very community-ish. Anyway, pretty soon it all began. People were on a stage going through the rituals. Ever name of every group involved was called and as your group’s name was called everyone would go on the track and begin walking. Only for this first part, but throughout the night each team needed at least one person on the track walking at all times, that’s what you pledge when you ask people for money.

So we APO persons waved our signs and walked together, and enjoyed the company of quite a number of other groups from Southwestern University, some other fraternities and sororities, and Colleges against Cancer, etc. We had about twenty people at one time from APO, there. We had a cooler packed with Mountain Lightning and Dr. Pepper, plenty of chips, and that was it: no real food, lol.

When night fell, the stadium lights were shut off and the luminaries were lit, which were all around the track. After some laps in the dark with the names of some deceased and cancer survivors were scrolled on a big screen, the lights came back on. Throughout the night they had ‘themed’ laps. Music was a big part of these themes- there was continuous music (lots of live stuff, country, rock, guitar soloist). For example, during the ‘zombie’ lap, Michael Jackson’s Thriller was playing.

People brought towels to sit on, and this worked well until the sun set and dew began to coalesce on the field. They were soaked before midnight. The few people who had brought thick blankets and sleeping bags were rewarded.

Actually, after midnight I didn’t do too much walking. We had two awesome marathon walkers, Scott and his roommate Matt. I had actually gone for a 2 mile jog earlier that day, which was stupid. I was out by midnight and could only walk one or two laps at a time the rest of the night, with about an hour rest between. On top of sleep deprivation and fatigue, I made the bright decision to come in shorts. It got COLD when night fell– Unexpected, since we had had very warm nights for a while. Even when I was still and sitting, my body was trying to keep me warm and not really resting up, so I couldn’t recuperate enough to do some serious walking.

I enjoyed it a lot, actually. Someone had an IPod with speakers, and we listened to all kinds of stuff. The most memorable part was the Disney collection. We (about 7 or 8 of us stayed the whole night) sang along to some Little Mermaid, Aladin, and my favorite, The Lion King. We really sung the hell out of “Hakuna Matata” ( the song whose lyrics I guess we all knew best, who doesn’t know those lyrics?)

So, though we were in a perpetual fight to stay warm, we had great company, and I’m glad that I got to know some fellow pledges and some actives a bit better.

I guess, on a last note, I’ll mention the shirts we made. APO’s VP’s mother had passed away only a week earlier. We made shirts with the last name ‘Robey’ on the front, both forher mother and our VP going through the tough times, and we all wore them throughout the night, even though most of the time you couldn’t tell because we were covered up.

It was a sobering backdrop to the experience, but I’m glad that we were able to enjoy each others’ company in a light-hearted spirit. It made for a good 12 hours, and afterwards I went straight home to Round Rock, where I crashed into a bed. My plan worked perfectly. I was awakened for breakfast, ate heartily and eagerly, and then crashed again. I was back to normal by 5pm. And had to stay up late to do some writing too. A crazy week was about to start- but that’s another story.