If you haven’t yet heard, there was an apartment fire on April Fools’ Day at Campus West. I heard about it from one of my roommates. One lit firework and the whole apartment ignites, almost taking neighboring apartments with it.

Seeing as I wasn’t present at the apartment when it happened, I can’t say anything specific about the incident. However, I might as well use this for a much broader point – think through what you’re doing before doing it.

Once again, I repeat my usual disclaimer of not being perfect at this myself. However, as I’ve mentioned in a previous article, I’m an introspective person. Therefore, I tend to habitually (sometimes out of paranoia) play out as many outcomes of a certain scenario, real or imaginary, in my mind. I’m not saying that everyone should develop this personality aspect, but it really pays to think twice about things in general.

Again, I’m not pinpointing the apartment fire incident specifically, because I can’t make a judgment on something I didn’t even see personally. Basically, this has opened up the general topic of people doing things that they come to regret later. We’ve all been there, we all know how it feels.

I remember working at my local city parks and golf crew last summer. Every other day, we’d get court workers coming in for community service hours. One court worker in particular said she got caught making a mistake she immediately regretted, and that as soon as she finished, she’d be sure not to do it again. That’s not just a cliché story about regret – it happened.

I would imagine some people reading this would say how obvious all of this is. Don’t do anything stupid if you want to avoid facing the consequences. Well, there’s always those less-obvious situations that don’t come to our attention right away, such as failing to read which bathroom cleaner has ammonia and which has bleach, or absent-mindedly putting your keys down somewhere and forgetting where you put them later.

The point is, no one is ever completely safe from doing something stupid at some point, but there are ways to reduce how often we let them happen.

That being said, I’m not trying to put anybody down, but throwing a lit firework inside a building is highly questionable. There are so many ways to enjoy April Fools’ Day without the risk of burning your home down.

As Fire and Rescue Department Capt. Dave Pelton said, “The lesson to be learned here is don’t play with fireworks.” Every lesson is meant to encourage, and I honestly hope the tenants involved still got to celebrate April Fools’ Day in a much better way afterward. However, this incident is a clear indication of how easy it is for a simple joke to go up in flames, literally. Celebrate with friends, have fun, but be smart and be safe. You never know when the unexpected will happen.