The Never-Ending Alarm

My Tuesday night this week was just like any other. I had dinner at Mac with my friends and went back to my dorm to do homework. Tuesdays are usually laid back since I only have one class, so I use them to rest and prepare for the rest of the week. After finishing my homework and scrolling on my phone, I took a shower and got into bed around 11:00, which is usually the latest I stay up on weekdays. Unlike most nights, though, I couldn’t sleep. I lied in bed restless for hours, unable to grow tired enough to fall asleep. 11:00 quickly turned into 1:00 before I finally fell asleep.

While I was sleeping, I had the most amazing dream about being at the beach. Since I live in Ohio and it’s February, I can only dream about that right now. In my dream, I was lying in the sand, waves crashing, a piña colada in my hand, when all of a sudden I heard… BEEP BEEP BEEP. That was definitely not part of my typical beach dreams. The absurdly loud noise woke me up, and I realized it was a fire alarm.

At first, I was annoyed. Throughout my year at ONU, I have
noticed they usually schedule fire drills before breaks. I thought, surely they wouldn’t plan one for a random Wednesday morning around 2 a.m. My annoyance quickly turned into anxiety. Maybe it wasn’t a drill. What if there was actually a fire in my hall? As a professional overthinker, every worst-case scenario started running through my mind. I put on the first pair of shoes I could find, threw on my coat, grabbed my keys, and my roommate and I rushed out. We stood outside for about 20 minutes. No one knew what was happening, including the RAs. Some people were angry, others worried. I was both. Around 2:20, we were directed back inside without any explanation. Since it was so early, going back to sleep was all I could think about. I also had an 8:00 class at Dicke that morning, so I got back in bed as fast as possible.

A couple of hours later, at 4:16 a.m., I woke up again to BEEP BEEP BEEP. This time, I was less worried and more annoyed. Was this another drill? Did it accidentally go off again? Once again, I put on the shoes I had just taken off, threw on my coat, grabbed my keys, and went outside. We stood there for about 10–15 minutes. My friends and I were confused, and the RAs still didn’t have answers. I started worrying about my 8:00 class, which was only a few hours away. We even joked that the alarm would go off again at 6:00, following the pattern. After what felt like forever, we were finally allowed back inside.

I knew I’d only get a few hours of sleep, so I quickly took off my shoes and coat, set down my keys, plugged in my phone, and got into bed. Five minutes later, BEEP BEEP BEEP. At that point, I thought it had to be a joke.

We were forced outside again. By now, I was beyond tired and just wanted to sleep. My friend Kearstin and I stood in the cold for about 15 minutes, and I honestly started crying from exhaustion. Some students left to sleep in the engineering building, others in their cars. Finally, the RAs explained what was going on: a roof leak on the third floor had triggered the alarm system. They told us it might keep going off and that we would have to ignore it. Thankfully, we didn’t have to evacuate anymore and could go back inside.

The alarms kept blaring in our rooms, and many people began to cover the speakers with coats. Around 4:45 a.m., I put in my noise-canceling AirPods and closed my eyes. They helped drown out most of the noise. The alarms were still going off, but I was determined to sleep anyway.

Somehow, I still made it to my 8:00 class in Dicke on time, with the help of a Bloom Energy Drink (not sponsored, but it should be). For the past couple of days, my head has randomly replayed the BEEP BEEP BEEP sound. This experience is definitely in my top ten worst nights ever.