By: Hana Priscu ~Feature Editor~

Once upon a Black Friday Eve, my family and I waited outside the Best Buy store in Greenwood, Ind. in the hopes of purchasing new Samsung and Apple products at a fraction of the normal price. While we frowned upon “serious” Black Friday shoppers who frequented multiple stores, our behavior was somehow acceptable because we only waited for one store to open.

As we stood in the cold amidst the mobs of other shoppers, we all shared a proud glance around the circle. Thinking that we had prepared more than any other shoppers who would be waiting outside the store, we pulled out our oxygen-activated hand warmers and thermoses filled with hot chocolate and coffee. We were quickly outshone as other families settled into their cots, warmed their hot-plates and served their fully-prepared Thanksgiving dinners.

Nonetheless, all of these sights were more believable than what I saw next. An elderly woman with wispy blue hair and birdlike limbs got into a shoving match with a teenaged girl covered in tattoos. This was not the alarming part, however. As the young girl shoved the elderly woman out of her way, the woman was thrown into the path of my mother.

Being your average, considerate Midwesterner, my mother pardoned herself and let the woman pass by her while asking if she was alright. The kind old lady then proceeded to gesture inappropriately toward my mother, using a few choice words to tell my mother where to go and what to do.

While Nov. 27 may seem like just another day, it has the power to transform people. It can transform a soccer mom’s handbag into a lethal weapon, a child into a body shield and an elderly woman into a force to be reckoned with.