Nothing to do on the first day of class? Climb a tree

No need to call the firefighter to get the “Kat” out of the tree. She is just fine where she is.

The Comstock Park senior was perched high inside a large tree just outside of Moore Hall on Monday, waving at other students as they walked by. Some gave her looks, but she didn’t mind.

Funny look or not, she still invited every passer-by to join her on a first day of class frolic through the branches. Monje threw on a smile and called to people, waving her hand ever-so more rapidly but with the grace of a beauty queen.

She said she is not trying to lure people into the tree — she is not a siren. Monje just wants people to relax and enjoy life, especially on a day when all you receive is a syllabus in class.

“My name is Kat, do you know what that makes me?” she asked a member of the CMU marching band as they walked toward practice. The band member was clueless, and had no response to the question.

“Give up? It makes me a ‘Kat’ in a tree,” she said gleefully. “… I just like to play, I do lots of weird stuff with my friend Kris here. We’re those weird theater kids, the hippie theater kids. We love to make our own adventure. That’s what we’re doing.”

Her friend, Mount Pleasant senior Kris Miller, found himself sitting beside Monje for about 40 minutes in the tree. He rustled through the leaves as he tried to pinpoint which branches were strong enough to hold his weight.

As Monje and Miller climbed, others joined. Three other people hopped into the tree Monday afternoon, just to hang out.

None of them knew each other before the tree. No phone numbers were exchanged, just a few laughs. The chances of seeing each other again are slim. But for 10 minutes, they all connected with one common goal by the courtyard next to Moore Hall.

“It was a good climb,” said Dave Orr, a Chicago freshman who sat and watched Monje climb for 15 minutes before joining in. “It’s nice, you know? When you are up there you get this sense of freedom.”

Orr was only in the tree for a few minutes, but made it his goal to scale the highest point possible. He made it more than 30 feet from ground level.

“That’s high,” he said. “You don’t really think you are when you are climbing up, but once you look down, oh that’s the ‘wow’ moment. I am afraid of heights, but have always enjoyed the exhilaration tree climbing gives me. And being up that high? Yes, I was frightened, but it was amazing.”

Detroit sophomore Joanna Wysocki was rushing by to attend marching band practice, but stopped to exchange a few words with the “tree people.”

She couldn’t believe people were doing that on the first day of classes, especially without inviting her before they started.

“I would totally be up there in a second, but I have to go to practice,” she said. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen something like this so early in the semester, but I hope I see more of it.”