*The Backdoor is a “work” of “humor” and “fiction.”
By Audrey Barrett
Over spring break, Lindsay Adams ’21 signed up for a College Outdoors trip to have what she thought would be a fun, refreshing getaway from the monotony of campus life. How she was wrong. Adams fell victim to a tragic boating accident when she went kayaking last Tuesday.
“We were out there, not paying attention to time or how far we’d gone, when a rainstorm rolled in,” Tara Masterson ’21, one of Adams’s close friends, said. “Lindsay… we lost her… her Snapchat streak.” Masterson declined to comment further, asking for privacy during this time of grieving.
The Snapchat streak, which already had the timer icon on when Adams woke up that morning, would expire at 2:42 p.m. The group had been out of cell range since the day before, but they weren’t worried. The leaders of Adams’s trip had promised they’d return to Internet access by 2 p.m. at the latest.
But as the timer grew ever more urgent, Adams kept recieving send failure messages from Snapchat. Masterson wanted Adams to notify the leaders that she was struggling, but Adams was too prideful. This pride would be the death of her.
Around 3 p.m., Adams opened her phone and collapsed, convulsing with grief. Her friends carried her body back to camp and sent up an emergency signal. But it was too late.
“Safety is our priority here at College Outdoors,” Moe Yuska, College Outdoors Program Director, said. “It was just so unlikely that such an event could occur. We take all the precautions: closed toed shoes, no swimming without a PFD, using the pour method for snacks instead of reaching into the bag which could spread germs. We deeply regret the loss of the 500 day streak.”
Adams’ Snapchat streak was with Leah “Weebs” (fire emoji/100 emoji/laughing face emoji/googly heart eyes emoji) Deminksi, who attends Colorado State University. The two have been peas in a pod since they met in Mrs. LaGrange’s second grade advanced math class, and all through high school they could not pass one another in the hall without an embrace and an “Oh my God, girl!! How have you BEEN?! I haven’t seen you in AGES!!”
The two cherished their frequent back and forth Snaps, with upwards of 300 uncaptioned ugly selfies exchanged on the daily. Occasionally, they would even send a picture with the dog filter, or send each other their public Snapchat stories individually just to make sure all the important people knew what they were up to on a Saturday night.
The loss hit Deminski particularly hard.
“Lindsay and I were so close,” Diminski said. “We had the yellow heart icon, meaning she’s my best friend and I am — was — hers. I can’t believe I lost her. I go to send her a GM streak and then it just hits me, the streak isn’t with us anymore.”
Deminski said she is doing everything she can to honor the memory of the streak. In Adams’ name, Masterson and Deminski are working together to file a lawsuit against CO for recklessly endangering students with their careless conduct. Being out of cell range for over 24 hours is simply inexcusable in 2018.
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