You ever do something that makes your heart skip a beat and gives you the feeling that you screwed up and there’s no way to get out of it?

That feeling burned my chest on Thursday, October 18th when I set off the fire alarm. In this course of wacky and stupid events, I not only landed myself in detention, but I also gained a story that I can tell for the rest of my life.

As a disclaimer, I never meant to set off the alarm, but unfortunately it happened. To set the scene, I had just had a free and was talking about lighting a fire in the fireplace. With support from my friends, I grabbed some wood and set the fire up. During this process I remembered to open the flue, but when I began stacking wood, my shoulder or some other appendage on my body seemingly knocked something metallic. I thought I just hit some steel bar on the top of the pit, but I actually knocked the flue back into place, locking the chimney. Without any knowledge of my massive mistake, I continued to light the fire. This small move would prove to be catastrophic.

Around school, kids were beginning to settle down into their various clubs and activities, excited to get some work done or to have some fun with their fellow students. What they weren’t expecting was the blare of the fire alarm going off, summoning everyone to the 2016 turf. As kids began to pour out of the building, I was having a mini heart attack. Not a real one, but a figurative one. 

It didn’t take long for word to reach everyone that I, Jake Warren, was to blame. I was berated with texts and calls from multiple kids saying, “there’s no way you did it!” But I did do it, and I felt like an absolute idiot. It didn’t take long for me to find some clarity in what I did. A few conversations with Mr. Bell and my awesome advisor Mrs. McDowell helped me ease my stress and realize it was just a stupid mistake and not a malicious act of arson. 

To sum up this blurb, my message to you is don’t make a fire in the fireplace. Instead, let someone who knows what they are doing light a fire for you. Not me! I can promise you that you will never see me make a fire or even stand remotely close to the fireplace ever.