Oh exam time… that means it’s time for the newly established tradition of holding a rave in Davis Library.  It’s only been done three times (once as a true flash mob and twice as a highly planned event), but the rave is already a solid tradition for UNC students.  Like a majority of students, I only learned about the first rave the day after.  And thanks to Youtube and the wonderful world of Facebook, the idea spread like wildfire to other universities.  Of course, I was stunned by the idea and seriously wanted to be part of the crew who planned it.  After all, who wouldn’t want to have a rave in a Library?!?  Well, I’m not sure I would call it a true rave, but you get the picture.  It’s fun.  And yes, the second rave attracted something like 3000 students.  The third one?  I don’t have exact numbers, but after tracking down who was running the whole thing and joining them as one of the people who helped set it up, we ran out of glow-sticks 20 minutes before it officially started.  And just to put it out there… we ordered 2500 glow-sticks… do the math.

So what is it about the Davis Library Rave that makes it so awesome?  Well besides the fact that we get to turn our favorite cathedral-of-late-night-caffeine-driven-study-torture into a 3000+ person club including a celebrity sighting of DJ Ravin’ Rameses (sorry, shameless self promotion…)?  That’s simple… it’s become a meaningful part of the Carolina student culture.  And that’s a valuable experience for everyone involved.  So how do I know the Rave is now tradition?  The UNC Alma Mater ends the whole event.  If that’s not a litmus test, I don’t know what is.

Well, after helping with this semester’s rave, I started thinking about why certain events become ingrained in our mind as “special” and why most everything else just happens and that’s it.  We remember a lot of events in our lives, but few really affect us much.  Why is that?   After thinking about it for a few days, I think I have the answer… it’s because certain events in our lives help create and strengthen meaningful relationships.  They have value.

Photos from the May 2010 Rave