sneaking out like it's 1999

When I was 15 and a freshman in high school, sneaking out was pretty much the coolest thing to do. My boyfriend lived only about 5 blocks away and of course it wasn't enough that we spent all day at school together, all of our time after school together, and every meal together. We needed to see each other TWENTY FOUR / SEVEN, PEOPLE! Luckily for me, the layout of my childhood home was perfect for sneaking out. I lived on one end of the house (past the kitchen, living room, and laundry room) and my parents, Twin, and Meimei lived on the opposite end. It took a while for me to build up the courage to sneak out, but after that first time I was addicted. I spent nearly every night away from home, setting my alarm for 5 AM so I could jog back to my room before dawn.

My room was part of an addition my father made to the house when I was around 11 or so. He converted our huge garage into a smaller two-car garage and a laundry room and den (which he foolishly thought would be his place to relax instead of my future living quarters). The addition was blocked off from the rest of the house by a door which led into the kitchen. There was also a door in the laundry room which led to the garage and one leading into the backyard.

The first time I snuck out I stereotypically climbed out my window, which was both totally unnecessary and totally painful. I landed on one of my mom's garden statues and scraped myself up pretty badly. But sneaking out was supposed to be like this, right? That's how it is in all the movies, you have to climb out your window. That's like, Sneaking Out 101.

When sneaking out became a more regular thing rather than just once in a while, I got tired of wearing bandages from all the scrapes and scratches I got from leaping from my window and it was annoying to take the screen to my window on and off every night. I smartened up, enrolled in a graduate course in Sneaking Out, and realized, duh, I can just use the door.

That was nearly 9 years ago and after I got caught (inevitable, really) I never thought I would have to sneak out again.

Until this past Saturday night.

It was 4 AM, I was not sleeping as per usual recently, and suddenly I had a desperate need for a beverage to quench my thirst. I was all out of bottled water, my mini-Alhambra-ish dispenser was completely empty. I panicked. What was I going to do?! Drinking Chinese tap water is not an option. I felt like people stranded at sea must feel, surrounded by so much water but unable to drink even a sip of it. Just knowing that I had nothing to drink made my thirst more intense.

If I lived in an apartment the solution would be easy. I'd get out of bed, stroll to the nearest 24hour market, and buy some water. I don't live in an apartment, though, I live on campus, and on campus we're surrounded by a huge gate and can only enter and exit by passing by the gate guards, who lock the gate at around midnight and don't open it until around 7 or 8 in the morning.


I had three options at this point:
1. Wait three hours for the gate guards to wake up.
2. Go and knock on the guard shack to wake up the guards and have them grumpily unlock the door for me.
3. Sneak out.

The answer was so obvious. I would sneak out.

I've learned a lot since I was a wee 15 year old. Most importantly for this situation is never do more work than you have to. I began an attempt to scale the fence when my memory flashed back to that high school freshman covered in scrapes from jumping out her window and I thought, What the heck am I doing?


Then I saw my escape: a large hole between the gate and the ground.


I have to admit, I was excited to sneak out. It gave me an adrenaline rush thinking I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing, even though technically I had every right to be off-campus at 4 in the morning. It didn't matter. I was being bad. And it felt so good.

What's the baddest thing you've done recently?