Rutgers Reflection: My ‘Scarlet Day’ Bus Tour Nightmare

Last Updated on September 6, 2023

With my freshman year of college coming to an end, I decided to take some time tonight to reflect. To think back on last year when I was still a senior in high school. To remember the day I decided to attend a bus tour at Rutgers University with one of my closest friends.

It was a cold and windy afternoon in late February. It was the day of our guided bus tour. We left home on the early side to ensure we wouldn’t be late… only to reach our destination with over an hour to spare.

After an interesting info session to kick-start our tour, we were led onto a bus for the university-wide bus tour. When we got to a certain point, we were asked to get off the bus for a tour of the inside of a freshman college dormitory.

As our tour guide showed everyone the inside of a standard dorm room, my friend and I were STARVING so we decided to break away really quickly to run over to the closest vending machine for snacks. We needed something that was small and quick like a bag of chips but everything was $1.25 so we had to scrounge our wallets for quarters before we could buy anything. Meanwhile, our tour guide was wrapping up his tour of the dorm room.

It took us much longer than I had anticipated. It didn’t help that my bag of chips GOT STUCK IN THE MACHINE so I had to buy another one. And I didn’t have any more quarters. But I needed those chips. We weren’t leaving until I got them.

When we finally had our food, I said, “We have to go! They’re heading back for the bus!” and on that note, we RAN!!!

WE COULDN’T LET THEM LEAVE WITHOUT US!!!

“QUICK, WE HAVE TO RUN!”

In the process of trying to catch up to our group, we stampeded through another tour group that was standing near the exit of the building. Arms filled with chips, we crashed right through the tour group’s circle and made a break for it right out of the building’s exit. All the while, I was shouting that we had to run faster! And my friend was juggling her chips while screaming back, “I’m running as fast as I can!!!!”

When we reached the bus, my friend noticed that the group we caught up to wasn’t actually our tour group. But how?

That’s when I began to realize what had happened.
We walked back into the dormitory and oh my god. Yep.

Our group was the tour group the two of us ran right through the middle of during our frantic attempt to exit the building while fleeing with our bags of chips.

The entire group witnessed our grand escape. So incredibly awkward… We honestly didn’t even try to explain.

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The Rocky Safari