I’ve done a lot of dumb things in college.
The dumbest thing happened Sunday, when I ignited a poor excuse for a fire with a gas can.
Two seconds later, I found myself sprinting with a flaming gas can past my friends’ cars before chucking it in the abandoned yard across from my house, lighting the yard and fence on fire in the process.
Do you remember in “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” when the Uruk-Hai sprints with the torch to blow up the wall at Helms Deep? Yeah it felt like that— a death sprint.
While I was trying to get rid of the gas can, which caught fire on the hose and handle, I was thinking of one thing— “get rid of it before you die.”
When I chucked it into the yard, no explosion came. It hit the ground and went out.
The best part of this story was that I wasn’t even drinking, although I still wanted to puke from the shock of what I had just done.
I quickly ran to the gas can to stop it from pouring out and carried it back into the garage, reeking of gasoline.
I came back to an onslaught of laughs and half-insults, but I didn’t mind it. I was just glad everyone was okay, especially my buddy Spencer, who was leaning in the fire trying to get it started when it lit up like napalm. Sorry Spencer.
There are some things you do in life that make you realize how close you can be to death. This was just one of the few I’ve done.
I plan on doing more idiotic things before I graduate, as I have a bucket list [that was not one of them, honestly], but I’ll be sure not to start fires with gasoline anymore.
I’ll stick to lighter fluid.
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