It’s happening again. People are deciding to live in the Olin Library as a game of survival, this time competitively. Why are we doing this? For the glory, for the story, for the pride of winning, for no reason. It’s an extension of a history of Student Life writers living in Olin for no reason. Maybe it’s inspired by the people who brag about living in Olin Library, maybe it’s inspired by spending so much time in Olin that you feel like you live there. In the past, this has been a solo journey filled with inner turmoil and loneliness. I know this from personal experience. This time it will be different, though. This time it will be war. This will be the Hunger Games in Olin. Tributes (volunteering Student Life senior staff members) will compete to see who can survive (the stay in Olin Library) the longest. President Snow (Sam Seekings, Editor-In-Chief) will sabotage the game during the week to steadily decrease the pool of participants. Silver parachutes will be delivered each day (you can vote on Facebook on who should receive them) containing items the tributes need (want).

Here are the rules:

You have to sleep in Olin
You can’t go home
You can’t go to someone else’s home
If you leave a place, everything you brought with you has to go with you
You can’t accept gifts and you can’t give people things
If more than one person is left on Friday, the game extends

If you break these rules you die (I mean, not really, but to me, yes). The cannons will fire, the obituary will be written, and the games will go on.

DORIAN DEBOSE

District: William Greenleaf Eliot Residential College
Age: This stallion is 57 in horse years (19)
Height: close enough to 6’ to round up comfortably
Skills: Sleeping while sitting up. Sleeping while laying down. Pretty good falsetto.
Stake in the game: I have convinced myself this is easy and that any hiccups I run into spawn not from the difficulty of the challenge, but from my sheer incompetence.
Predictions: We enter this here competition to defeat our enemies. But we will exit this competition with…friends
Preparation: On Mondays and Wednesdays, I’m on campus from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. I’ve been camping once.
Biggest fear: Spiders and decapitation. Related to this? Spiders.
Strategies: I have enough meal points not to starve. If that fails me, I will nibble through an issue of StudLife. If all else fails, I will start a campfire and force an evacuation.
Top Three Items Packed: Blanket, toothbrush, Rohan.

ELENA QUINONES

District: Park Mudd Residential College
Age: Depends who’s asking
Height: It fluctuates between 5’3” and 5’4”
Skills: I can sleep in any environment at any time.
Stake in the game: Is it the pursuit of glory? Perhaps. My journey to becoming a more spontaneous person? Also possible. Just the fact that I have serious FOMO and really did not want to miss out on this adventure? That feels real.
Predictions: Rohan will last longer than he’s saying. He secretly loves this.
Preparation: Not to brag, but I’m a packing wizard.
Biggest fear: Waking up for the day and being surrounded by people using the library for normal purposes.
Strategies: Making Olin Library feel so home-y that I never want to leave.
Top Three Items Packed: Jar of applesauce, blanket I stole from the Amtrak and Saltine crackers. I thought about bringing my lava lamp for a solid minute, but it would’ve taken up too much valuable space (sad).

ELLA CHOCHREK

District: Village East
Age: Old enough to be very very done with Washington University but too young to get into a bar.
Height: Shorter than my friends realize
Skills: Ability to entertain oneself
Stake in the game: Effectually zero. I’ll quit when I feel like it (aka if my new limited-edition sneakers come in the mail).
Predictions: I will do no work all week. Like, literally nothing. I have no ability to do work outside of my room. Also, I have a horrible time sleeping in my comfy full-sized Tempurpedic bed. Three hours of sleep a night will have to do. Oh, and I think Elena will win.
Preparation: I took a shower right before going back. And I packed the way I would for a three or four day long family vacation.
Biggest fear: Getting my things stolen while I sleep.
Strategies: Doing all my textbook readings over the weekend to prevent having to carry books around. Bringing as little as possible because I’m weak and don’t want to crush myself under the weight of my backpack.
Top Three Items Packed: Moisturizer, laptop, laptop charger.

JOSH ZUCKER

District: The Lofts
Age: 2 X 2 X 5
Height: Short enough to comfortably sleep in those chairs
Skills: Who’s to say
Stake in the game: Not gonna lie, I’ve been thinking about this as a week-long sleepover—I know, I’m 12—so I’m not sure what my stake in this is other than to have fun and suffer for the sake of the paper, but what else is new?
Predictions: I personally think that I could make it through the week living at Olin, but I’m not sure about winning the thing. I will say that Yom Kippur occurs this coming week and I’m not sure how well fasting and Olin are going to go together.
Preparation: Over the past week I’ve been compiling a packing list and finally put everything together yesterday. Looking at Katy’s section, I’m feeling underprepared, but it’s too late now.
Biggest fear: Werewolves, but in this case, probably exhaustion.
Strategies: My secret weapon is a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter as I do not have the meal points to live on campus for a week. I also have a history of spending what I’m a doctor would consider irresponsible amounts of time in Olin and that experience will help me.
Top Three Items Packed: A green throw, my bread and peanut butter, a flannel.

KATY HUTSON

District: Forsyth Boulevard
Age: feelin’ 22 (but actually 20)
Height: The same height as Cara Delevigne
Skills: Making beds out of couches, lifeguarding, CPR and first aid certified
Stake in the game: I’m a competitive person and I like a challenge. When I watched shows like “Survivor” I always thought to myself, “Oh, I could do that.”
Predictions: I don’t think I’ll win. This is a really inconvenient week for me to live in Olin Library and I have to go to the dentist. As competitive as I am, I also value my work and education.
Preparation: I’ve done this before. I trained long and hard last March for this moment, and learned some hard lessons. I spent a copious amount of my time Saturday doing a practice pack, and I’m feeling good about this. I slept on the couch Friday and Saturday to get used to sleeping in that position.
Biggest fear: Back problems. It’s a lot of stuff to carry around, man.
Strategies: Trust no one.
Top Three Items Packed: Full-sized blanket that hooks onto my bag, sleeping mask, dill pickle sunflower seeds.

ROHAN GUPTA

District: Leland Avenue
Age: 21
Height: Comfortably average
Skills: Lounging, multitasking, procrastinating
Stake in the game: Effectively zero. I mostly joined because I was part of the initial discussions and wanted to encourage the idea, then didn’t know how to say no to actually being a part of it.
Predictions: I have told everyone repeatedly that I will be the first one out, so if you’re betting on someone to do that, I’m your guy.
Preparation: None.
Biggest fear: Actually taking part in this?
Strategies: Say I’m going somewhere other than home and go home
Top Three Items Packed: Laptop, phone, notebook. These are items I usually bring to school and will not help me win this competition.

Check Student Life’s website each morning for daily updates on our progress.