I experienced my first Black Friday with a friend over Thanksgiving break.

Now that I’ve had time to digest the experience, I can honestly say I enjoyed it. However, I did not go willingly.

The first thing to prepare for was the sheer volume of people who were pushing the store past its capacity. It was a teeming mass, which threatened to swallow us whole. But learning how to properly navigate it allowed me to slow down and observe the people in the crowd. I learned something from that.

For as many horror stories as I’ve heard, I was genuinely surprised the people around me did not suddenly turn into psychopaths by the allure of cheap goods, as I thought they would.

They just wanted to get the most out of spending time with their families, and I think that’s respectable.

I didn’t come to this conclusion until my friend and I stumbled upon a drum circle in the middle of Wal-Mart.

A small crowd had gathered in an aisle to await the arrival of new TVs they had all won in a raffle, and we sat with them as they sang songs and passed the time.

This led me to believe that maybe Black Friday isn’t so bad after all.