WESTWOOD–Eager to quench his thirst for adrenaline, area thrillseeker Adam McGrew, a first year global studies major, jaywalked at De Neve crosswalk last Friday.
“I used to get my fix by rock climbing, cliff jumping, scuba diving… you know, typical stuff for wild beach kids. But it’s gotten harder to get my daily dose of adrenaline since I got to school. I have to get creative,” said McGrew.
McGrew exercised his creativity while walking from his room in Dykstra to his 11 a.m. lecture on Friday morning. Despite the fact that the De Neve crosswalk is a common location to get ticketed for jaywalking, McGrew decided to take a risk and cross the street before the signal notified him it was safe to do so.
“It all happened so fast. There were probably about twelve of us all waiting to cross the street, but he just walked to the front of the group, looked both ways, and strutted across,” said Serena Kelly, an undeclared first year student who witnessed the event. “The rest of us all looked at each other in shock. One guy even walked up to the road and looked like he was going to try to do the same thing, but then he looked back at the rest of us and gave up. I guess [McGrew] is just braver than we are.”
Typically, waiting at the De Neve crosswalk takes about 45 seconds, but McGrew “didn’t have the patience for that.”
“I wasn’t running late or anything. I just thought, ‘I’m young, I’m full of life, I can’t waste my time waiting around to cross the street!’ So I just went. The first step was the hardest, but once I got out to the asphalt, the adrenaline really just carried me the rest of the way,” said McGrew.
McGrew has since been considering founding a club devoted to travelling around LA in search of the perfect jaywalk. “Jaywalking doesn’t get enough credit as an extreme sport, but it really gets your heart pumping. I’d love to get more people interested.”
At press time, McGrew was seen recording his friends jaywalking at other crosswalks around campus to make a recruitment video for his club.