As a senior, my mind quickly jumps to one thing. ALMOST DONE. I’m so close to being done with high school and Arkansas. Don’t get me wrong I love Arkansas. However, after being stuck in small town Springdale for almost 18 years, it’s great to get out and go adventuring in a big city. For example, Chicago!
I went on a college day to this marvelous school named Columbia College Chicago with my mother and my friend Elias. After the ten-hour drive to get there and arriving at 2 a.m., we experienced Chicago firsthand. We drove the wrong way down a one way street, saw a cop drive illegally and got honked at for staying a stop sign for more than one second. Elias and I decided that anything goes in Chicago.
The next morning after very little sleep, we got to go see the school! Naturally we woke up late and walked the few miles to the school only to be late. Despite our tardiness, we had the opportunity to hear from the head of the photography department. As much as I love photography, that was Elias’ thing. My favorite part of visiting the college was getting a personal tour of the film building led by the head of the film and video department!
This school has sound stages and HD cameras galore! It was absolutely beautiful to a film kid like me. They can make people fly, they’re professional, and they have two RED cameras! I just kept thinking to myself, “Just accept me right now. I love this school!”
They have connections everywhere for internships and job opportunities. It was just great! But the time quickly came for us to leave, our tour was over, and we had nowhere else to go explore!
Chicago is an amazing city, the stores were fantastic, and the food was outstanding. Although we didn’t exactly know where to go, we called Justo, who lived in Chicago for 11 years! He gave us a list of places to go and see like the Navy Pier and all the shops. We ate at a place he recommended and then went shopping (poor Elias). Unfortunately I ended up feeling sick and literally had to be carried out of a store! But that is when I got my very first ride in a taxi.
As I climbed into this scary vehicle, I started getting nervous. Those taxi drivers were crazy! They honk a lot. They don’t follow the rules of the road I learned here in the South. But we got lucky and our driver was calm, most of the time. He still scared me just a little.
Being sick did not stop me from having fun; after the medicine kicked in, we went on with our adventures! We shopped more and ate some cupcakes. We swam and explored the hotel. The next day we woke up late (again) and missed our deadline for leaving. So we just stayed longer and enjoyed more Chicago sights. Despite getting back to Arkansas at 5 a.m. and having to come back to Arkansas, the experience motivated me to finish my senior year. Almost done.