Elevator Jammed

I was riding up in the elevator yesterday when the unthinkable, or the something that only happens in movies happened. The elevator got stuck. It was not for a long time, maybe five minutes. Three other people and I were riding up in the elevator when it stopped at a floor, and then continued up just to get stuck. I, being the one to find many things humorous, just started to laugh and roll my eyes a little. As I was giving a quick giggle and a sigh, I looked around at the other poeple in the elevator.

There were two other girls, and a guy. One girl had her head phones in and was standing in the corner. She looked pissed, and said "shit" under her breath, "I have a meeting in 10 minutes and I need to change," she said while she glanced up and around the elevator. I glanced over at the next girl who looked very concerned, and then all of the sudden the guy in the elevator started to hyper-ventalate. He was reasonably tall, and muscular, but right now he looked like he was going to cry. He was breathing really fast and gripping the sides of the elevator with kung fu grip. I asked, "Are you okay? Why don't you sit down, and try to breathe slowly." He answered, "No, I am ok, just keep talking to me." In my mind I was like, wow, he is really freaked out. So I answered, "Just take deep breaths, we are just above fifth floor it is not like we are going to be stuck forever, it will get itself going." He continued to breath in heavily and quickly, while the other girl without the head phones was saying, "Oh my God, are we stuck? Did the elevator seriously just stop? I think that griding noise is a stuck sound. What do we do? Are we going to get out of here? OMG are we really stuck." I answered, "Yeah, we are stuck, this happens in the elevators in this building." As I was giggling at the fact that I was stuck in the elevator, I was trying to keep the guy from passing out. "Dude, breathe, I don't keep brown paper bags on my person." He laughs at this, and then boom, the elevator continues to go up. I get off at my floor, and walk to my room. Once I got to my room, I laughed hysterically at the fact that I got stuck in an elevator, but also at the differences in the people in the elevator.

One girl could only think of herself, one girl just could not believe that elevators can malfunction, and a guy who was scared out of his wits (which I find highly ironic), and myself, who found it completely hilarious and was the voice of reason. The good thing was, I helped someone yesterday. I kept someone from passing out in fear because of hyper-ventalation. It feels good to really help someone. A good lesson learned, but I definitely won't be riding in the elevator for a little while.