Flyby Tries: Sleepover in Lamont Library

Sneha and J.J. heard about Annette and Raymond’s sleepover in Cabot Library and immediately knew it was a horrid idea. Still, they wanted to torture themselves (and test their all-nighter stamina) anyway, so they chose to follow in Annette and Raymond’s footsteps in a far superior library: Lamont. They had no plan, no room booked, no blanket, and no food; in other words, they were the most prepared they had ever been for a late night in Lamont.

Here’s a rough timeline of the night’s events:

4:30 p.m. — J.J. arrives at Lamont with her friend, Reuben L.S. Henry-Daire ’26, to study and steal a classroom. She is nervous because she and Sneha have never met before, and she’s not sure how the night is going to go/if Sneha is a weirdo. On the other side of the yard, Sneha is freaking out about the cute little squirrel shaking in the tree outside her window and making plans to eat her weight in ice cream during Sunday Sundae.

8:46 p.m. — Sneha arrives at Lamont, a blanket and sweatshirt smuggled inside her suspiciously full backpack. It takes her two minutes to get to the second floor, where J.J. and Reuben are still ensconced inside their stolen classroom. She and J.J. discuss their plans for the night and discover (horror of horrors) that they’re both probably going to be working until midnight.

9:01 p.m. — Reminded of “Night at the Museum,” J.J. thinks: “You’re in trouble, dum dum; you better run, run” (out of Lamont) and immediately escapes under the guise of “grabbing sustenance and other essentials for the night,” leaving Sneha all by her lonesome. Sneha feels lonely and texts her friends for company, but they apparently have the sleep schedules of functional people and don’t show up.

9:10 p.m. — J.J. arrives at Dunkin’ and buys a sugar-filled coffee for herself and a grilled cheese for Sneha (who just ate dinner but is not going to refuse more food).

9:11 p.m. — Sneha rather unproductively attempts to do homework. Her attempts to actually accomplish anything are somewhat inhibited by the fact that she’s obsessively taking notes on everything she does for the sake of posterity.

9:20 p.m. - Having finished the first item on her to-do list, Sneha decides that she deserves a break. As she catches up on all the messages she missed due to Harvard-Yale, she wonders why decided they should do this the day after The Game.

10:00 p.m. - J.J. returns with a food offering. The strangers eat in silence as they contemplate doing their homework.

10:22 p.m. - One of Sneha’s friends texts to say that The Crimson is boring. Sneha ends the friendship.

10:55 p.m. - J.J.’s friend leaves (wahhhh).

10:56 p.m. - Sneha finishes her first assignment (hooray!!!); J.J. is yet to have finished anything (boooo!!!).

11:10 p.m. - All of J.J.’s devices decide that they want to be difficult. Her phone and laptop throw tantrums and die so that she can’t do anything productive while she’s stuck in Lamont.

11:15 p.m. - Sneha and J.J. have their first conversation of the night… about TV.

11:29 p.m. - They discuss their (lack of) sleep schedules as J.J. begins painting her nails. (J.J. is serving).

11:56 p.m. - Minkai V. Li ’26 pokes his head through the door, hoping to steal a room for himself. Surprise: Sneha and J.J. already have it. J.J. and Minkai strike up a titillating conversation… about Cabot vs. Lamont (Lamont’s better, obvi). Minkai dares Sneha and J.J. to spend Thanksgiving break in Lamont because “24 hours is too easy.” (He’s not the one sleeping in Lamont, though, so maybe his judgment can’t be trusted.)

12:09 a.m. - After their surprise guest leaves, Sneha begins her fourth task of the night. She rests her head on the table, reminded of the somewhat comfy bed in her dorm, but then remembers to never give up.

12:21 a.m. - J.J. declares that she’s going to the bathroom. Sneha internally praises the wonderful choice of stealing a room on the second floor simply because the women’s bathroom is close.

12:35 a.m. - J.J. gets stuck in the bathroom stall for five minutes. Upon her return, Sneha shares her Cabot restroom horror story (iykyk). Sneha then remembers the Black Mirror episode, titled “The Stall,” in honor of the wackiness that is American bathroom stalls — why is the crack in the door that big?!

12:47 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. discuss their siblings and astrological signs; Sneha inadvertently breaks J.J.’s brain with birth statistics.

1:07 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. leave the comfort of their classroom to explore the treacherous domains of Lamont.

1:08 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. stand against a window, staring and scaring people as they walk out of the café.

1:15 a.m. - Having arrived at the third floor, Sneha and J.J. walk in on someone in the Media Lab Annex and, in their desperate retreat, stumble upon a book titled “Worst Ideas Ever.” (This little Lamont stay isn’t featured in the book, but it probably should be.)

1:18 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. discover the YA novel section. It’s very disorganized.

Sneha: “I read “The Selection” this week.”

J.J.: “You had time for that?”

Sneha: “No.”

1:20 a.m. - Sneha trips over a lamp, causing J.J. to hysterically laugh on the floor. This draws weird looks from other students.

1:21 a.m. - Satisfied with the Farnsworth Room (and its comfy chairs), Sneha and J.J. make the trek back to the second floor to retrieve their possessions and hunker down for the night. On the way, they encounter the warning they needed before they made the decision to stay in Lamont in the form of ominously placed yellow caution tape.

By J.J. Moore and Sneha M. Yelamanchili

2:24 a.m. - Sneha realizes she’s been here for like 5.5 hours and it’s wearing on her. J.J. passes out.

2:30 a.m. - Ready to turn in for the night, Sneha journeys to the second floor to use the restroom. Lamont’s just a teeny bit dead, and the caution tape is freaking her out, so she listens to Taylor Swift’s album “Midnights” to quell her fears. On her way back from the restroom, Sneha spots another student hunched over the desk, a study carrel, their coat hanging on the wall, and is comforted by the fact that even at this late hour, she is not alone.

6:30 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. wake up! The sun begins to rise over a silent campus. The two (now) friends sit and wait, watching as the bricks turn gold in the morning light.

They survived.

8:01 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. are on their way out of Lamont when they (spur of the moment) accost a thesising senior, Chidera A. O. Ejikeme ’23, and attempt to learn from her wisdom.

JM: Have you done all-nighters before?

CAOE: Oh yeah, tons of times. I haven’t done a real one since, like, freshman year.

SMY: Do you remember what the freshman one was for?

CAOE: It was for an LS50 [Integrated Science] pset.

SMY: [gasps] I’m in LS50!

CAOE: Do not do that.

A little bit delirious, Sneha laughs maniacally.

CAOE: I’ll never forget being in Lamont basement, and I thought the windows were mirrors ’til the sun rose.

SMY: There’s windows down there?

CAOE: There’s windows in the basement. I thought they were mirrors, but they were windows. Because the sun rose through those windows. Never again.

JM: Do you have any advice for people who are going to be doing all-nighters? Specifically in Lamont.

CAOE: Order food.

JM: If you’re choosing a library, Cabot or Lamont?

CAOE: Lamont.

8:12 a.m. - Sneha and J.J. hug goodbye, never taking their cramped Canaday rooms for granted ever again.

To answer the question every Harvard student wants to know: Is Lamont better than Cabot? The answer: yes! If you’re looking for a place to study until the sun rises, Lamont is the place for you. The couches are comfy (so you don’t need a sleeping bag or pillows to stay cozy), the lighting creates an ambiance, and there will always be another mysterious room for you to explore.