Where Were You During the Rave of 2009?

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From the sounds of it, my RUF crush was already feeling the groove. It was party time and she knew how to convey the immediacy that any party requires. You can't get there later, you gotta get there now. You can't wait. Just come. Be not there. Be here. Do not wither, float. Quickly. Are you almost here? Be here.

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J.D. Williams Library is the last place you'd expect to have a good time. It would be the dead, d-e-a-d, last place to envision a techno rave, complete with costumes, pacifiers, cheap glow-sticks and about 2,000 burned-out students. They aren't mentally decrepit from drug abuse. No, it's finals week. The most dreaded/anticipated week of the year. After May comes summer, and during summer comes love. But before you can reach the climax, you must resign yourself to studying for one final week. It's finals week. Mind losing to body. Body losing to sleep, or lack there of. Your teachers hide in their offices as you beg for that one letter grade and your parents pray each night that you are getting the required amount of sleep to function at a reasonable rate come morning. Until morning, you are nervous, giddy, full of something, maybe stimulants, but above all, burned-out.

A student-led initiative leads you and your classmates inside a three-story building that houses more books than you could ever read, even if you were stuck in prison. The otherwise quiet corridors and aisles are crammed with coeds and eggheads, all anticipating a historic moment- a few minutes of chaos. Music, mayhem, technicolor nonsensical dancing party people. It's time to let loose. What would your parents think? Who cares? It's a school-sanctioned event. The powers-that-be shake their heads hoisted on their ivory necks and think, "gee golly, kids these days. As long as alcohol isn't involved." They smile and allow this otherwise rebellious behavior. It seems harmless and it is. It truly is. Kids can have fun without endangering their future and the powers-that-be want to endorse this activity. It's safe and fun. Nothing is wrong with this picture.

And the kids eat it up. Yay, wild times. Sanctioned. Join the organized, fully-accepted, good times. The elders are okay with this? Great, let's go for it. Aren't the elders cool?

And as the kids accept the elders acceptance, the party is planned. It begins. Student organizations join in the brigade. Cameras are charged, ready to catch the action and immediately zip it to YouTube and various other media outlets. This is our party. The campus party. And it's safe as milk.

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I wasn't there