Jerrod Bradley, EE2
Jerrod Bradley
I recently took a trip to Memphis, Tennessee with a handful of my friends. The occasion for our visit was the Ole Miss vs. Memphis football game at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. My friends and I were planning on going anyway, so when our academic advisor, Seph Anderson, sent us an email about a potential EE2 class road trip for the weekend, we immediately wanted to go. After a rather grueling week of classes that included two tests, we were ready for a well-needed break. So after our genetics test was over on Friday afternoon, we loaded up and were headed to Memphis to support our Rebels.
One of the interesting things about this trip was the inclusion of an “Escape Room” on Friday night. We hadn’t done much research on what this actually was, so when we arrived there, we were clueless of where to go and what to do. We walked into an office building that housed the rooms of which we were going to try and escape. As we walked into our room, previously prepped on what our goal was, we had literally no idea as to where to start. You see, the escape room came with a background story of a killer who was on the loose. We had broken into his apartment (the room in the basement of this office building), and were supposed to escape before a hypothetical bomb was set off. Through the use of many well-hidden clues, our team escaped with only eight minutes left.
After we had escaped our “near-death experience” (the hypothetical bomb), we were all so tired that we grabbed a quick bite to eat, then headed home early because the game the next day was at 11 a.m. As the sun rose on game day, we were already up and ready to go before 8 a.m. After sitting in traffic for some time, we finally arrived at our seats and the game started about 30 minutes after we arrived. We were up 14-0 in the first eight minutes of the game. We were enjoying ourselves – and the way the Rebels were playing – until Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch took over. After the first 10 minutes of the first quarter, Paxton Lynch completed 39 of 53 attempts, with 384 yards and three touchdowns. After a tough and grueling four quarters of action-packed college football, we walked away with a 37-24 loss to the underdog.
This was a truly heartbreaking loss for me, personally. However, the overall experience of this past weekend was excellent. The escape room was a success and I was able to make new connections with some of the EE2 students whom I had never really talked to before. I have memories from this trip that will remain far after this one loss that some would consider as insignificant. I would suggest to anyone who reads this, that the next time any laid-back event like this is planned, that they need to go. This weekend will forever remain in my head as the weekend where my group of old and new friends went “Walking in Memphis.”
