“Gates will lock at 5:00 pm,” the Facebook post from MSU Transportation reads, “and all the cars inside will be locked in until morning.”

Mississippi State University, citing the overhaul of the campus parking system, has introduced free parking five miles away from campus. There is a bus that shuttles students back and forth every 15 minutes. That’s sensible. Except for the part where the gates lock at 5 p.m.

For commuters with late-afternoon classes, this creates a problem: do you risk parking at Horse Park and hope you can make it back before the deadline? When I heard about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about my afternoon class, Intro to Ethics, which is held from 3:30 to 4:45. Suddenly, I started rolling an idea around in my head – could I make the deadline? Could I hustle out of Carpenter, across the Drill Field and catch one of the last buses to Horse Park? I cannot resist a challenge like that.

To be honest with our readers, as an on-campus resident, I do not have to deal with this parking anxiety. I walk to class. My car spends most of the day sitting in the lot outside the sorority house where I live. But, in the name of journalism, I decided to martyr my car — park it at Horse Park, leave it at the mercy of the 5 p.m. deadline and see if I could beat the lock-in when my class gets out at 4:45.

My quest had begun.

I arrived at Horse Park at 12:35 p.m. I parked my car beside 17 other cars and opened MSU’s bus app, TransLoc, to check on the bus’s location. Drats. The bus left five minutes ago. I pulled out my phone to start my stopwatch, taking note of the time.

It took precisely 20 minutes and 1 second before the bus appeared, during which time I counted two students who hustled off the bus, unlocked their cars, and drove away, clearly wanting no part in this social experiment. I was the only one who got on the bus.

The bus lurched and rumbled out of the parking lot at exactly 1:00 p.m. I was surprised by how consistent the schedule was. The Horse Park bus leaves the bus stops once every quarter hour. That means, according to the math skills they gave me as a communication student, I would have to hustle from Carpenter at 4:45. That one 265-meter walk might be the difference between victoriously riding my car out of Horse Park or riding the bus back with my tail between my legs.

I updated my notes.

The ride was scenic. I have always loved South Farm. One of my favorite memories reporting for the Reflector was when I drove out to the middle of South Farm to cover a weather balloon launch. I reminisced about that article the entire ride back to campus.

The ride lasted 11 and a half minutes before we rumbled into the stop at Montgomery Hall. Two freshmen got on the bus and asked the driver if it was the MSU South bus. It was not. They hopped off and asked me for bus directions to Magnolia Hall. I told them it was faster if they walked. They thanked me for my one good deed of the day.

I stuck around just long enough to watch the bus leave promptly at 1:15. I pondered about the future, wondering if I would ever see my car again.

I was anxious the entire afternoon. To calm myself, I checked the TransLoc app every quarter hour. Like clockwork, the lone Horse Park bus would either be leaving Montgomery Hall or Horse Park. My fate was tethered to this tiny brown arrow, representing the live location on the bus.

On my way to Intro to Ethics, I high-fived Bully, who was tabling in the Amphitheater. That had to be a sign of good luck, I told myself.

By the time the lecture started, the optimism dissolved into the uneasy churn in my stomach. I texted the Reflector’s managing editor, Lucy.

At 4:44, when the professor finally said, “Have a nice, long weekend,” I was out of there in a heartbeat. Outside of Carpenter Hall, I yanked out my phone and checked the bus’s location – as expected, it was parked in front of Montgomery Hall.

I power-walked across the Drill Field, skirting the edge of a light jog. At one point, I nearly collided with a block of ROTC members who were practicing their formations. My friend, Brooke, spotted me and yelled across the grass, asking where I was going. I didn’t have the time, or frankly the courage, to explain that I was in the middle of a self-imposed parking experiment. So, I shouted back a lie — “class!” 

Then, at 4:47, barely two minutes after I had left Carpenter, the bus pulled away from Montgomery Hall, stranding me on campus. My experiment was doomed. I shared my thoughts with Lucy.

I trudged back to the sorority house for dinner. After, I enlisted my boyfriend to drive me out to Horse Park, optimistic that the “gates will lock at 5:00 p.m.” statement was some sort of empty threat. But when we arrived, the gates were chained shut. My car is officially a prisoner of Horse Park until the morning.