DAY 6
February 7
Prompt: "Tornado Warnings...WHAT THE HELL."
There is something about the atmosphere of Interlochen that turns the most rational person into a model of irrationality. Most of the traditions are weird; most of the policies are even weirder. And you know what? You get used to them over time. You think you won't, but you do. I know at first it really freaked me out that we were allowed to change out of uniform after classes (for the record, we weren't allowed to do that at the camp). However, there is one policy, regarding weather, that to this day completely blows my mind.
The Tornado Warning Policy.
Here is Interlochen's view of things: If there's four feet of snow on the ground, with eight-to-ten-foot snowbanks on either side and snow coming down like a beaded curtain from the sky so you could get lost half a block from your dorm, and a solid sheet of ice covering the entire road so that you can't wear anything other than mountain-climbing boots for fear of ice-skating your way to class...well, what the hell, just send the kids to class anyway. I find it highly ironic that on the Campus That Was Eaten By Snow, there is no such thing as a snow day. I guess their policy on that is, "Well, they have to get used to snow soon enough anyway; might as well make them get educated while they freeze their asses off."
But so help me, if there is a single drop of rain, they go on the alert. I've gotten e-mails from Campus Safety declaring a "thunderstorm warning" after five minutes of drizzle. I'm not even exaggerating. To their credit, Interlochen does wait until things are fairly severe before they issue a tornado warning. But for the most part, what they cite as a tornado warning usually turns out to be a ten-minute thunderstorm, which feels extremely anticlimactic...especially after you've been ordered to the basement for a storm that wouldn't even knock over a plastic flamingo, let alone turn into a tornado.
You think I'm exaggerating now, don't you? I'm not. I'm not even remotely kidding.
Let me remind you all--I am from Michigan. We are not exactly the Tornado Capital of the World, but we get our fair share of violent weather. In the summertime, we get plenty of thunderstorms. And I have seen a pre-tornado thunderstorm. The sky is freaking green. The clouds move in certain patterns. The rain comes down like thousands of tiny, wet daggers. It's not your normal thunderstorm. And I know--because the first time I was aware of one of these, I completely flipped out. I'll never forget that. So, trust me, I know what a true tornado warning should look like.
And also let me point out that I KNOW thunderstorms are dangerous. Trees get knocked over. Things get hit by lightening. Power goes out. I know all of this. I repeat: Michigan. It's not that unusual. It's been November and we've had power-cutting thunderstorms.
But really, Interlochen loved to flip out over thunderstorms. This just happened. I'm still not sure why. Here's what I do know: I do not like to be inside on a rainy day. Running around in the rain is one of my favorite pastimes. If there's a chance for me to go out and dance in the rain, and get completely, thoroughly soaked, and just generally act like a fool, I will take it. I love rain even more than I love snow. If you offer me a choice between rain and sunshine, nine times out of ten I will take rain. It's part of my genetic coding, I guess. (Don't ask me why.)
So, of course, Interlochen has to cancel classes, herd us into the basement, and make a hugestinkingdeal out of every major or minor thunderstorm to hit our campus.
I've heard stories of people doing insane things during thunderstorm warnings or tornado warnings, my personal favorite being the anecdote about having a picnic on the roof of the dance building during a tornado watch. (Wish I'd been there for that one...) But what I really remember about the tornado watches/warnings and thunderstorm watches/warnings of my senior year are how freaking inconvenient they were...how they literally always happened at times when I desperately wanted to be out of my dorm or at someone else's dorm.
I mean, really.
It was like the thunderstorms wanted to tick me off.
This especially ticked me off at the end of the year, when I had literally a month to spend with someone I really cared about and knew I would most likely not see after the school year ended, and guess what? Those damn thunderstorms kept sneaking up on me and separating us. I remember one night I ended up in hysterical tears over this. I remember being so mad at the weather, and so mad at the administration, because I just wanted to spend as much time with this person as I could and the stupid rain wasn't letting me. I literally sat curled up on my floor crying, with "Goodbye Love" blaring in the background because that was my cry-song at the time.
That was a low point for me.
I won't lie--there were times when Interlochen's rules really frustrated me. But you know what? It really is a small price to pay. When I look back on that time, and think of how frustrated I would get because things would be so much easier if we could just do things a tiny bit differently (like, hey, administration, how about NOT imprisoning us in our dorms at the first sign of rain?), I try to remind myself that things could've been much worse.
I could've still been in public school.
And we all know how well Beatnik Belle did in public school.
*coughnotverywellcoughcough*
STOLEN DIALOGUE!!!!!
"How did Buddha die? He got food poisoning, right? He ate at Glar."
"In other words...stop arguing over religion!"
"Sorry about all the f-bombs...I'm declaring nuclear war on angst tonight."
"Look on the bright side: It's better to be a ghost than a zombie."
"A chastity ring? WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY...or lack thereof?"
Person one: What do you see when you look at this picture? Someone who's exhausted?
Person two: Someone who's ready to fall over on the keyboard, yes.
"Wouldn't it be nice if homework could just hand itself into the teacher? Like, 'Hey, I just did myself, here you go.' Oh, shit, that sounded dirty..."
"Don't worry...the true/false section of the test is the only place where I like to be a smartass."
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