20-Year-Old College Student Is Wearing a Christmas Tree Costume Until the End of Finals

A University of Alabama student is now regretting a challenge to her Twitter followers that has now left her hilariously stuck wearing a Christmas tree costume to all of her classes for the rest of the semester.

Kelsey Hall, 20, took to Twitter on Dec. 2 to post a hilarious picture of herself looking miserable awhile wearing a colorful Christmas tree costume. But Hall decided to up the ante a bit and challenge her 300 Twitter followers to share the picture more than a thousand times, and if it reached the mark, she’d make her life a little more miserable by wearing the costume to her classes for the rest of the semester.

“My mom got me the costume because I love Christmas, and she thought it was funny,” Hall, a chemistry major at the University of Alabama, tells PEOPLE. “I took this picture and thought it would just be funny to post, but I had no idea that I would actually have to wear this so that’s why I said I would wear it for the rest of the semester.”

Of course, the tweet far surpassed the goal, reaching more than 10,000 retweets in two days.

As Hall’s plan backfired, she wasn’t shy about showing her disappointment.

“I definitely did not think I would get 1,000 retweets, I thought it was a very unrealistic number—the most retweets I have ever got before was, maybe, five,” she says. “When the retweets were coming in I was shocked! I had 12 yesterday morning and somehow hit 1,000 by the end of the night!”

But she remained a trooper and followed through on her promise.

“At least I didn’t post it last week because now I only have a week of classes left,” she says. “When I first got on campus I was pretty nervous and I didn’t know how my teachers would react.”

So far, Hall says the reaction to her costume has been mixed: some people have smiled her way, some told her they liked it, while others laughed and gave her weird looks. But, she’s glad she might be bringing some holiday joy to her campus.

“I went through with it because I know everyone is going through a tough time with finals coming up,” she says, “and hopefully, I could bring some Christmas cheer to my classmates!”