Students fight finals stress with pillow fight

A pillow fight broke out at the Memorial Student Center Plaza Monday morning as a part of the Campus Activities Board’s Stress Relief Week. Interested Marshall University students were provided pillows by CAB.

CAB advisor Sarah Dyke was present as the event and is responsible for the pillow fight.

“I hope that students take a few minutes between classes and stressing about finals and everything like that to let loose and have some fun,” Dyke said. “I mean, people are walking by and are probably going ‘what in the world is going on’ and they may have never seen anything like that, but we like to do things like that where people are like ‘what is going on’. We hope that people come over to the tent and get to know what CAB is and to take a few minutes to relax and take a beak from all of the stress.”

Dyke said part of CAB’s goal is to raise awareness for the organization.

“What we try to do as a trademark is try to leave the tent up so that people see the CAB logo and see the bright colors and they are recognizing the faces of people in CAB and of the event staff with shirts on,” Dyke said. “It is just about getting students to feel comfortable to come up to the tent and figure out what is going on in the first place, but I think that the tent is working really well and students are realizing that the campus activities is here to give them entertainment.”

Many students came by to fight their peers. The pillow fight was spontaneous for some and helped relieve the stress of dead week and the approaching finals week.

“I want students to see that there are things for them to do that don’t require pre-planning and that doesn’t require them buying a ticket or going way out of their comfort zone to do it, but something as simple as a pillow fight may make someone laugh or smile for a few minutes as they are passing in between classes,” Dyke said. “It isn’t something that they have to write down in their planner or squeeze time in their schedule to do. It is just out here on the plaza and they can come and go as they please.”

Sophomore student Jamia Shook said she decided to attend the pillow fight because it sounded fun and could potentially take away some stress that she is feeling over school.

“I am excited to participate in the pillow fight and this does talk a little stress off of my mind right now,” Shook said. “I am definitely feeling the finals week stress with a lot coming up. I think that it is fine to have fun during the end of the school year and stress is normal around this time.”

Marshall students have more events CAB sponsored events to look forward to during stress relief week. Events will continue through Friday.

Sabrena Hirst can be contacted at [email protected].