The mental, physical and emotional stages of making a cooler

Deciding to make a cooler holds the same weight as deciding to embark on a journey. There will be highs, lows, dangers (mostly of going crazy), and most importantly, stories to tell when you complete your task. Here are all the stages of making a cooler for your formal date.

Getting asked to a formal

The first and most important stage in your cooler making adventure is getting asked to frat formal. This is the first step because lets face it, are you really going to spend hours upon hours not to mention your blood, sweat and tears working on something if you don’t get to go somewhere cool for a weekend? Probably not.

Doing the research

The next step is finding out what he likes (sports teams, favorite beer, the crazily intricate fraternity crest that he has on his wall…etc), so you know what you are actually going to paint on the cooler. Also it is important to do research on how the heck to actually paint a cooler (it involves way more steps and Walmart craft products than you would think). My best advice is to find a friend or someone you know who has painted a cooler in the past. They can give you all the tips and tricks to make your life about a million times easier.

Getting up the courage to actually start

Personally, this was the trickiest part for me because lets be honest, once you start you are probably going to mess up. But gather all your courage because YOU ARE GOING TO FORMAL and you have better things to be worry about than this cooler (namely what clothes you are going to bring to your most likely warm destination).

Realizing you messed up and having a panic attack

A usual side affect of number three. You are four days and about 30 hours in and you realized that you misspelled his name on the top of the cooler and are having a panic attack because you have to start over (Pro tip: you don’t – that’s what sanding and re-priming is for). Once you have cried for about as long as you did when your ex-boyfriend cheated on you, you regain your composure and with the physical and emotional support of a friend, begin fixing your mistake.

Being 95% finished and wanting to give up hope

This stage is where most people reach the pit of their despair and uncertainty. “What if he doesn’t like it?” “What if everyone else’s coolers are better than mine and mine looks like a fifth grader did it?”

Giving him the cooler and waiting for his reaction

After all your blood sweat and tears that went into this, you are finally ready to give him the cooler and go on the (insert number here) hour drive to get to his fraternity formal destination. The suspense has been building….its the moment of truth. You think to yourself, “If he doesn’t jump for joy when he sees this, I’m not even going. This was basically my life for two weeks and I BETTER get some appreciation for this thing.” He sees it and his face lights up because let’s be honest, there is no way HE could ever make something that came anything close to the Da Vinci level of art that you have created.

After all is said and done you vow that no matter where the formal is, or how cool the guy is, you are never making another cooler as long as you live. At least that’s what you think…until next year.