Joao Godoy
English 111B
From Dusk till Dawn
Have you ever got so bored to the point where you are willing to do anything to entertain yourself, even breaking the rules? My guess is yes, you have, and that is normal because people usually don’t think about the consequences of their actions on themselves and others until something happens. It was the month of February in the small town of Waco, which is known for its famous restaurant named Hunters; they had the best hamburgers and wings in the area, and for that reason people from all parts of Nebraska and the U.S. would come to try their food.
Besides the restaurant, the town didn’t have any other attractions besides the High School that brought people to watch the sports events. I came to Nebraska in the year of 2015 to play sports; coming from a big city of twelve million people, the adaptation to a small town was very rough since the only thing to do there was to go out to eat at Hunters. I went to a Lutheran boarding school, which means that the high school kids live in a dormitory by the school building. As the time went by, I made some pretty good friends, I was never scared of taking risks and neither was my friends, so we decided to do something “fun” one night, my friends and I decided to sneak out of the dorm and climb one of the giant grain bins in town so that we could watch the sunrise.
After days planning ,we finally had a plan, since the dorms windows had mesh screens we had to cut them so that we could sneak out and after a couple minutes of work we cut it and decided to sneak out of the dorm around four in the morning because our tutors would be asleep. The day had come and we were ready. Me, my blonde friend from Texas, Dylan, my South Sudanese friend Jiokow, my Brazilian friend Leo and my other African American friend Jayson jumped out of the window, and we didn’t see a living soul on the street just like we expected and the air was cold and dry like it usually is in the month of February, and there was snow on the ground.
We were trying to be quiet because by our dormitory there’s an old yellow house that has a big dog in it, so we kept on walking slowly so we could remain unnoticed, and after walking for about five minutes in complete silence, we finally got to the big grain bin made of concrete and it was really tall, and I got really scared to climb it at first, but my friends were excited and I was looking forward to see the sunrise. So it was around four-thirty in the morning when we decided to start climbing the grain bin, the only way to get to the top of the grain bin was climbing the fixed ladder on its side that started around eight feet above the ground. We had to take an iron ladder that we found on the ground to be able to reach the fixed ladder on the side of the grain bin. So we started climbing it and I was the third person to go, and as soon as we were half way up a strong wind started blowing and I remember looking down and instantly regretting doing that as I gripped my hands to the ladder, it was the scariest moment of my life because I knew that if we slipped or fell we would die from the fall. After we all made it to the top, we talked for a couple of minutes and watched the sunrise, and it was one of the best moments of my high school career. Although we were very cold, we were not worrying about what we had to do the next day but we were living and enjoying the moment instead.
Unfortunately the moment came to an end, and we had to leave because it was about the time that the workers would come. I was the first one to go down the ladder, it was really scary but we all made it to the ground safely and started to walk back, when we looked back we saw a police car patrolling around the block and my natural instinct kicked in, I started running towards some trees to hide and so did everyone else, my friend Dylan tripped and fell in the middle of the street as the cops were turning around the corner. After that incident the situation turned around, the fun was over, now we were sprinting trying not to get caught as the cops were chasing us around the block, the only thing going through my head was the trouble that I got myself into. When we got back to the dormitory everyone dove through my room’s window and sprinted back to their own rooms.
At this point I had an adrenaline rush while lying on my bed and I was wondering what was about to happen and after about five minutes I heard the cops car parking in front of the dormitory, and at that point, I was really scared and after 10 more minutes my tutor came in my room and told me, “we need to talk”, and I followed him to the lobby accompanied by my friends, and we all looked at each other with that “we are screwed” look and after talking with the cops since we didn’t do anything wrong they just told us not to wander in the streets that late because it could be dangerous. We didn’t get in trouble with the law, but we still broke the school’s policies and rules so they gave us detention for three months after getting close to expelling us, and that’s when I learned my lesson that there are actually consequences for your actions, and that’s why making smart decisions is something really important, because doing the right thing isn’t always fun or pleasant, but it for sure helps you and people around you.
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