Life Changing Experiences
There are not many moments in life that you can honestly say changed your life. I think the idea of life changing experiences is thrown around too often these days. People will say that they just read a book or saw a movie and it changed their whole outlook on life (most of the time they just saw Fight Club or The Bridges of Madison County, usually its Bridges). But more often than not, the person's life will have not changed; they'll simply quote some lines from the movie for a few weeks and that's that.
I however had a real life changing experience. What I experienced was no movie, book, or exquisite meal. It was not Fight Club. It was definitely far from The Bridges of Madison County. My life will be changed forever and my already cynical view of the world will be warped for the rest of my life.
Why?
What could possibly be more life changing than The Bridges of Madison County?
I'll tell you my friends: I WAS IN LINE AT THE 28TH ST. WAL-MART IN CASCADE.
If you didn't watch News 8, read the Grand Rapids Press, watch CNN, or even see The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday night, I will fill you in. There were hundreds of people waiting in line at Wal-Mart in order to procure a $400 laptop. When the doors finally opened at 5 AM, all of those people ran into the building. Sadly, not everyone made it into the building. Two people were trampled as countless people lost their minds trying to get into the store. One person was taken away in an ambulance and another person sprained their ankle. I was in that ravenous herd of people.
I got to Wal-Mart that morning at 2:45 AM. I didn't bother going to sleep that night. My dad said that if I waited in line to get the laptop, he would get it for me for Christmas. I decided that a free laptop was worth braving the 10 degree weather and hordes of insane people. When I arrived at Wal-Mart, there were already 10 people in line in front of me. As the night wore on towards 5 AM more people started to show up. The line grew and grew. You could hear people around you talking about the laptop and all of the other deals in town. Which laptop is better the one here or the one at Best Buy? Everyone in line at Wal-Mart decided the Wal-Mart was a much better computer (for the record, these people are absolutely mental and the two laptops were pretty much identical except one said Toshiba and the other said HP).
At around 4:30 AM, the intensity in the line was tremendous. You could feel nervous excitement as the people started pushing towards the front door. I've been to many concerts with standing room only, but I have never been in a crowd that pushed with this much vigor or force. People began to talk strategy on the best way to get the laptops. One lady in front of me told her two kids something that was a major contributor to this experience being a life changing event. She told her kids that once they get inside, turn around and push people down as they come in so that she can get to the laptops before the people behind her. Now THAT is parenting.
At 4:59 AM, the crowd was losing their minds. Every time a Wal-Mart employee walked by the door, they would yell and push. More people started to show up and would walk up to the front of the line. I have never heard swearing and cursing so much as I did when people saw other people trying to cut in line.
5:02 AM. The moment my life was changed forever. The doors opened.
You think to yourself at 3:30 AM that you won't run. You are not an animal. At 4:30 you think, you might have to jog. Harmless. But at 5:02 when those doors finally open, you run. You run faster and swifter than you have ever run in your life. You run for many reasons. You run because you waited in 10 degree weather since 2:45 AM. You run because you want to get a laptop for Christmas and you don't want to borrow your girlfriend's old computer anymore. You run because the intensity in the line is so great that it takes over your whole body. You lose your mind. Your sanity is gone, gone like the melting snow flakes on your face in the freezing morning air. You run even without thinking. You just run.
Moreover, you run because YOU WILL DIE if you don't. The people behind you might be good people on any other day. They may be nurses, organ donors, or Speedway employees (all equal in my opinion) but today they are bloodthirsty for below-cost technology and they do not care if you have principals and choose not to run. you will be trampled.
So I ran. I was one of those people... (tears)
But there is more to this story: As I was running into the building I saw the kid that was in front of me whose mom told him to push people as they came in. I saw him hitting people. He came to hit me, but I was not like his other victims (40-something women). I was running, he was standing still. He was sufficiently moved to the side so as not to push anyone else. People cheered when they saw my heroics. 20 feet further, his other brother was standing by a line of shopping carts pushing them into to people. One giant of a man pushed the whole row of carts into the kid knocking him over. Again, there were cheers.
My journey to the center of the Wal-Mart to get the laptop ended in the electronics department. As we all ran up to obtain our prize, we saw them. All 25 laptops stacked up behind the counter. A new line was formed to hand out the laptops. There was even more pushing than before. People started to climb over the counter and tried to steal the laptops from the people waiting in line. It was mayhem. Its almost all a blur to me now...
There were so many factors in this experience that made it life changing. One obviously, was the mother telling her children to use violence in order for her to get a laptop faster. Another factor is that I never in my wildest fantasies thought I would be one of those people that would run in a store on the day after Thanksgiving. Like I said though, there are so many reasons you run and HAVE to run. Probably the most chilling aspect of this whole experience was that it was all for a laptop. The laptop was really worth probably $600 at most. That means that people were basically killing each other over $200. It was absurd. I can only imagine what the sheer desperation of starvation would bring out of people. This insanity was caused over a laptop. Imagine what kind of insanity occurs when starving people are trying to get life saving sustenance. Because of this, my life is changed forever.
For the record, the people that were hurt badly were all behind me. I was extremely close to the front door and got in before the real mayhem began. The only person I pushed was the one kid who was pushing everyone else. Justice had to be served.
But for those of you who think that you would never be a part of something like that, I will say this: I was just like you once. So optimistic, so idealistic. You think you won't run, but you will. You have to. You would be more crazy to not run.
When I think back about the sleep deprivation, freezing temperatures, and extreme danger, I am thankful for this experience. I now know why people are trampled. And to think, they are trampled in the name of commerce, greed, and the holiday celebrating the birth of Baby Jesus. Outstanding. I am extremely thankful that I was all over national television. If you see the clip again, I am the one in the gigantic tan coat with a huge furry hood. And I'm running.
Most importantly though, there were an estimated 500 people in line (according to the Grand Rapids Press). There were only 25 laptops. If you want a laptop you have to be fast. You have to be smart. Agile. Mentally prepared. You have to run while wiping your feet on the carpet in the entrance so you don't slip and fall. So many things must align for you to obtain a laptop you have a roughly 5% chance of getting.
The $400 laptop is always earned never given.
Ladies and gentlemen this tale of triumph, greed, and human desperation was written on a $400 Hewlitt-Packard Pavilion ve2803 laptop.
You'd run too. You have to run.
