We were doing improv comedy when we got the first alerts that the shooting had begun at the Union. There was about 10 minutes of confusion on what to do. Do we turn the lights out? The Union’s not that close. Wait, the Union is very close. Do we somehow try to keep doing improv? A friend of mine was trying to figure out how to turn the lights nearest to the window off when I got a message in one if my class group chats “There’s reports the shooter is in Phillips Hall.” I locked eyes with my friend at the light-switch and said in the most harrowing moment of my life, “Turn them all off now.”
Once the lights went off the 30+ people in the room went into instinct and some of us barricaded while the rest moved to the floor in the L shape not in sight. For the first 45 minutes we were all terrified that we would hear someone in the hall or a shot in the floor below us. No one moved, everyone texted their families and checked on their friends. During this time a friend of mine stood with a chair near the door ready to chuck it at anyone who tried to come in. Little moments like that brought the weirdest, surrealist comedy into the worst 4 hours of our lives.
After the police cleared our building we relaxed a little. We started to check on each other and collectively begin to breathe again. And then we waited. About 2 hours in the piss corner was established. We put 2 bags into a trash can and then a couple people made sure no one accidentally walked up while someone else was peeing. Another of the weirdest things I’ll have ever found funny and been able to laugh at. A pee joke in the middle of everything. Thankfully a friend of mine sacrificed all of his computers battery so some of us could charge our phones and I was able to keep in touch with my parents and friends until the shelter in place was lifted and my friend and I drove home to Wixom. I really don’t know how to end this other than saying we will heal and become stronger than we ever were.
However you need to heal: laugh, cry, run, go to therapy, do it. And we will get through this. #SpartanStronger
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