I realized I never wrote about my trip back to the Mitten! The trip was one of the best parts of my year so far, so I definitely need to rectify that.
Even before we left, the trip was an epic adventure. It all started with a little snowstorm… er, a rather large snowstorm. A snowstorm so large that it shut down the entire East Coast from Boston to North Carolina. This had the unfortunate result of also shutting down airports and grounding thousands of flights—mine and Colin’s included. We were due to fly out on Thursday afternoon, but sometime Wednesday morning, Colin received a notification that his direct flight from NYC had been cancelled. Although my flight wasn’t cancelled for many more hours, I knew it was only a matter of time since I had a connection in Baltimore, which was supposed to be the epicenter of the storm. (They ended up with 15 inches of snow.) Luckily, though, I’d bought my ticket on good old Southwest, so I could cancel my flight at any time with no penalty.
When it became apparent that there was no way to fly from any East Coast city to Detroit, Colin raised a crazy suggestion: what if we drove?
I know that it’s crazy to think about making a 13-hour-each-way drive for a long weekend, but there are few places in this world as special to me as Ann Arbor. During the month leading up to the trip, Colin and I couldn’t stop grinning as we made plans for all the places we wanted to go, all the people to see, food to eat, sights to see. The trip was quickly becoming the highlight of our winter, especially since it included celebrating Valentine’s Day, our four-year dating anniversary, and one of our close friend’s wedding. It was important.
It’s actually really hard to find the words to describe how I feel about Ann Arbor. The city, to me, is just one of those places that felt like home from Day One. I remember driving in with Mom the night before moving into my Very First Apartment Ever. I was skeptical—I knew that SNRE was the right school for me, but I wasn’t at all sure that living in Michigan would be fun. I didn’t know anyone in Michigan. It wasn’t like the East Coast, where I could take a bus or a train to visit friends in nearby cities. (What nearby cities, anyway?) And despite being in the Midwest, Ann Arbor was still an eight hour drive from St. Louis. When I accepted Michigan’s offer of admission, I sort of threw up my hands and said, “Whatever. I can deal with anything for two years.”
But then, as Mom and I drove down Washtenaw toward Central Campus, my eyes flew open and my heart raced. The trees! The charming houses with wooden siding and a balcony on every single one! I didn’t know a thing about the city beyond the 24 hours I had spent there during SNRE’s Admitted Students Day and that drive down Washtenaw, but I was suddenly excited. I couldn’t wait to start my life in A2.
I also felt like I grew into myself in Ann Arbor. I found a community of people (SNREds) that shared my values and dreams, both professionally and personally. I had had a similarly close group of friends in college, but finding a group that also shared my professional motivation was huge. I found some of my best friends in Ann Arbor. Three years later, despite being scattered across the country and only seeing each other at weddings and bachelorette parties, those girls are still some of my best friends.
So making it to Ann Arbor was important. It was important enough that when Colin sent me a message saying, “hey, I know this is crazy, but we could really do it—we could drive,” I said yes. We looked at weather maps to assure ourselves we wouldn’t be driving through the snowstorm. (That turned out not to be true… but luckily we didn’t know that at the time, so we went anyway!) We did a price comparison for car rentals to figure out whether we could afford the extra expense. We figured out that if Colin drove from New Haven to Boston that night, we could get on the road extra early to beat the storm. We planned until there was no more planning to be done, and then I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Yep, it's a crazy idea, but let's do it!" So, with the decision made, we scurried to pack our bags and buy snacks for the road, and then we were on our way.
< To be continued >
Even before we left, the trip was an epic adventure. It all started with a little snowstorm… er, a rather large snowstorm. A snowstorm so large that it shut down the entire East Coast from Boston to North Carolina. This had the unfortunate result of also shutting down airports and grounding thousands of flights—mine and Colin’s included. We were due to fly out on Thursday afternoon, but sometime Wednesday morning, Colin received a notification that his direct flight from NYC had been cancelled. Although my flight wasn’t cancelled for many more hours, I knew it was only a matter of time since I had a connection in Baltimore, which was supposed to be the epicenter of the storm. (They ended up with 15 inches of snow.) Luckily, though, I’d bought my ticket on good old Southwest, so I could cancel my flight at any time with no penalty.
When it became apparent that there was no way to fly from any East Coast city to Detroit, Colin raised a crazy suggestion: what if we drove?
I know that it’s crazy to think about making a 13-hour-each-way drive for a long weekend, but there are few places in this world as special to me as Ann Arbor. During the month leading up to the trip, Colin and I couldn’t stop grinning as we made plans for all the places we wanted to go, all the people to see, food to eat, sights to see. The trip was quickly becoming the highlight of our winter, especially since it included celebrating Valentine’s Day, our four-year dating anniversary, and one of our close friend’s wedding. It was important.
It’s actually really hard to find the words to describe how I feel about Ann Arbor. The city, to me, is just one of those places that felt like home from Day One. I remember driving in with Mom the night before moving into my Very First Apartment Ever. I was skeptical—I knew that SNRE was the right school for me, but I wasn’t at all sure that living in Michigan would be fun. I didn’t know anyone in Michigan. It wasn’t like the East Coast, where I could take a bus or a train to visit friends in nearby cities. (What nearby cities, anyway?) And despite being in the Midwest, Ann Arbor was still an eight hour drive from St. Louis. When I accepted Michigan’s offer of admission, I sort of threw up my hands and said, “Whatever. I can deal with anything for two years.”
But then, as Mom and I drove down Washtenaw toward Central Campus, my eyes flew open and my heart raced. The trees! The charming houses with wooden siding and a balcony on every single one! I didn’t know a thing about the city beyond the 24 hours I had spent there during SNRE’s Admitted Students Day and that drive down Washtenaw, but I was suddenly excited. I couldn’t wait to start my life in A2.
I also felt like I grew into myself in Ann Arbor. I found a community of people (SNREds) that shared my values and dreams, both professionally and personally. I had had a similarly close group of friends in college, but finding a group that also shared my professional motivation was huge. I found some of my best friends in Ann Arbor. Three years later, despite being scattered across the country and only seeing each other at weddings and bachelorette parties, those girls are still some of my best friends.
So making it to Ann Arbor was important. It was important enough that when Colin sent me a message saying, “hey, I know this is crazy, but we could really do it—we could drive,” I said yes. We looked at weather maps to assure ourselves we wouldn’t be driving through the snowstorm. (That turned out not to be true… but luckily we didn’t know that at the time, so we went anyway!) We did a price comparison for car rentals to figure out whether we could afford the extra expense. We figured out that if Colin drove from New Haven to Boston that night, we could get on the road extra early to beat the storm. We planned until there was no more planning to be done, and then I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Yep, it's a crazy idea, but let's do it!" So, with the decision made, we scurried to pack our bags and buy snacks for the road, and then we were on our way.
< To be continued >
No comments:
Post a Comment