OUR VIEW: Our very own zombie apocalypse
Human vs. Zombies: A massive scheme put on by Housing to keep USU students occupied until basketball season.
Many students are running around campus wearing orange headbands this week, and it cracks us up how excited some students — who have never showed their faces on campus before — become. Normally, paranoia is not a thing to laugh at, but when students are more worried about foam darts and being touched by “infectious zombies” than failing biology midterms and getting a date for the weekend, we can’t help but laugh our butts off.
There are definitely more productive ways to put such energy to use, such as fixing global warming or solving world hunger. Although, if everyone in the world were a zombie, world hunger would be solved by the human food supply.
What is the motive to join in? In three words: Nerf or nothing. Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have a massive dart gun war? Shooting our friends in the faces appears to be a favorite pastime at USU, and having such school-sponsored activities makes it that much better. Not to mention, those who own stock in Nerf are laughing all the way to the bank.
A few on The Statesman staff took part in Humans vs. Zombies last semester. We actually had frightening, zombie-filled dreams from which we awoke in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat. Our stress levels were through the roof, schoolwork suffered immensely and necks were sore from constantly looking behind ourselves.
Some of us even took to the extreme of installing a zombie home defense kit in our living rooms, complete with baseball bat, booby traps and zombie movies to learn from.
All laughs aside, we at The Statesman recognize HvZ as a great opportunity for people of different interests and backgrounds to break a few awkward social barriers. Now they can combine being awkward with being social.
We notice most self-proclaimed zombies fit into three different categories: over-excited enthusiasts who take part in every social event, freshmen and nerds. Many participants are the least social people on campus, who were just waiting for an excuse to break out of their shells, given the right reason to participate in campus activities.
We have seen nerdy guys and freshman girls, complete strangers in most cases, plot strategies together on the safest route to get from the bus stop to the Geology Building.
If there was ever a goal to include a “different” crowd in campus activities, the geekfest that is Humans vs. Zombies does it brilliantly. USU Housing — and possibly Nerf — beat all other organizations to the punch.