The “milk crate challenge” made its entrance to campus on Wednesday evening as students gathered at the Main Quad, recreating the viral social media trend.

The challenge involves stacking up 49 milk crates in the shape of a pyramid. The participants then attempt to successfully climb up to the top of the tower and come back down without falling over, while maintaining balance to avoid a serious injury. 

While some students attempted to participate in the challenge, others chose to remain as bystanders.

“I’m too clumsy, and I’m too shy,” said Ke’mani Williams, sophomore in DGS. “I can’t do that.” 

Leading to a recent chain of viral videos on TikTok and Instagram – varying from successful attempts and victories to serious falls or injuries – the milk crate challenge has attracted attention by University students, who were informed of the event mostly “on Snapchat … it was on a flyer circulating around,” added Kyriel Thomas,  junior in LAS.

While the scene of a packed crowd gathered around the stacked milk crates grew even bigger, more bypassers joined them, as well as those who came in late, trying to take the best-quality visual media they could from farther away and cheering the winners. 

Christiauna Mosby, sophomore in DGS, who stood next to Williams, chose to only watch the other students take on the challenge, while she remained in the crowd.

“I’m too clumsy,” Mosby said. “I’d probably wouldn’t even make it past the first one.”

Thomas also preferred not to participate “because we just booed someone who did it, so if I fall everybody is gonna boo me,” Thomas said.

Caren Morris, sophomore in Business, was the first student to participate, volunteering to take up the challenge. 

“I’m a person that likes to be put on the spot, challenge myself, build confidence,” Morris said. “And then, when I saw that nobody volunteered, I was like ‘OK,’ let me provoke other people too.”

Morris explained she was “not afraid of being in front of people” and was fearless while making it to the top which she successfully did, receiving the crowd’s applause.

“I wasn’t scared of falling because if I thought that way, I would have (fallen),” she said. “It’s… it’s a mindset so I thought about just… know(ing) that I was gonna make it to the end.”

Morris set an example for the other students to follow her lead.

“It’s like a personal accomplishment like not a lot of people make it,” Morris said. “And the fact that, you know, you’ve got something special that you actually make it is, you know, it’s a really fulfilling feeling.”

Anthony Wright, sophomore in LAS, was recording a live stream of the event on Instagram and Snapchat, and he thought it was the perfect setting for a sense of reunion.

“It’s interesting, I mean,” Wright said. “It’s something that brings us all out to like… just be together… so, yeah I enjoy it because you can’t get this anywhere else. It’s engaging all of us in a team.”

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