We no longer have to hold our breath and hope and pray for tomorrow to be Hurst Day — it finally arrived!

I think I’m safe in assuming that Hurst Day surprised most of campus by being the Monday before Fall Break.

I certainly wasn’t expecting it, and was totally prepared to wake up for my 8 a.m. class.

It was certainly a wonderful surprise when I got the email as my alarm was going off to get ready in the morning.

I ran into my roommate’s room to tell them the news, then promptly fell back asleep.

For me, Hurst Day is one of the most exciting days of the year.

I love the anticipation, even if I get antsy trying to guess the date.

Most of all, I just enjoy the atmosphere that the day brings to campus.

Starting with the email and bagpipes waking all of us up from our extra sleep, to the scavenger hunt and the inflatables, campus just absolutely comes alive every year during Hurst Day.

One of my favorite parts of the day is the Scavenger Hunt.

I love seeing all the creative costumes and getting to plan an outfit with my friends and try to outdo ourselves each year.

Every year it’s great to just see so many people sprinting around campus in crazy outfits and just having a great time.

An added aspect that I thought was really clever was the phone-a-friend option in the final round of the Scavenger Hunt.

This year, the final three teams had the option to choose someone in the audience to “phone” to help them out with one of the trivia questions.

I thought that was a great addition, especially since this year’s questions seemed much harder than in previous years.

While the Scavenger Hunt is great, what I really look forward to is the food and games available afterwards.

Each year, the food station themes just get better and better.

I thought they weren’t going to be able to outdo last year’s movie theme, but I was thoroughly impressed with the music theme and how all out they went this year.

I think everyone on campus loved seeing our beloved Rhonda dressed up as KISS.

Even though it started to rain and didn’t really stop for most of the day, I personally thought that made the games and inflatables even more fun.

After doing just one inflatable game, my friends and I were already pretty wet so we just decided to go all in and spent the rest of the afternoon on inflatables and games completely soaked.

I think the rain gave an added dimension to the event because it made some of them harder, and I know some people got a kick out of seeing me wipe out into water multiple times on different inflatables.

While it wasn’t ideal, those that embraced the rain had a blast running around without shoes, playing games and falling into puddles.

All of the events during the day are great, but my absolute favorite part of the day was getting to spend time with friends.

It’s the one day that my friends and I can spend together and not have to worry too much about our upcoming tests and projects and just get to spend time together.

It’s also one of the only days when the entire campus is in one spot, so it’s a great time to catch up with friends and classmates you haven’t seen in a while.

I know I ended up spending about half the day with a group of friends I hadn’t really seen in weeks, just due to conflicting schedules.

And of course, being able to enjoy a full steak dinner without having to do any of the cooking is always a great way to end the day.

Overall, although the weather was not exactly on our side, Hurst Day was an exciting and successful day of fun and friendship for all of campus.