Final day in D.C. provides new perspective

By our last day in Washington D.C. I had experienced the longest 96 hours of my lives, as well as the fastest and most furiously fun four days ever. We had “Canyon shuffled” all over D.C., averaging 14 miles every day. I had loved getting to walk through the city and felt like it was a breeze, literally. I had imagined the wind would not be near as bad as it is in Texas, however the gusts of sleet and rain attacking our lovely faces proved otherwise.

We woke up bright and early. I woke up at 5:15 a.m. that day due to not wanting to feel rushed and ensure I had everything ready and packed before we went to breakfast. As I dragged my suitcase, which was the size of half of myself (I had one of the largest suitcases out of everyone), I entered a room full of people. They all looked tired, yet happy, and were sharing smiles and soft laughter together while reminiscing about the times we shared. Four days before, I knew only the sophomores and a few of the other students in our company. I never suspected I would make many new friendships and nourish old friendships as well. When everyone arrived in the breakfast room, we were given our instructions and the plan for the day, and soon we all trooped out of the hotel.

My companions and I arrived at the metro station and waited to take the metro to get to Arlington Center. When we came up the elevator, I saw that we were right outside of the Arlington National Cemetery.  We met up with our wonderful tour guide Cathy for the last time and trekked up the hills of the cemetery. Our group hushed as we made our way through rows and rows of tomb stones. We walked up to an amphitheater where events such as church services on Easter morning are held. We all stood and looked over the beautiful benches and white, picture perfect theater with a beautiful array of morning clouds. We then made our way through the tombstones, stopping to remember and respect those who rest. I could not help but think of all the families who lost dear loved ones. Once we reached the top of the cemetery, The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stood solemnly and was closely guarded. We anxiously awaited to see the changing of the guard, suddenly noticing how cold we were. My group and I whispered to one another of how those men who were guarding the tomb on Sept. 11 had to stand and watch their city go through such distress, as their duty was to protect the tomb of the unknown.    

We then walked to where Robert E. Lee had lived. Due to the painful cold that had numbed my feet a few minutes before, we decided to return to the hotel, therefore taking our last metro ride. When we arrived at the hotel, our group was sent to the room in which we had eaten breakfast and left our luggage because we had checked out before we left to go to the cemetery. Our posse then realized we would be staying in that tiny room for a substantial period of time. Several people changed into comfy clothes and made themselves at home. I decided to nap, used my backpack as a pillow and tried to close my eyes for a bit. I too soon woke up to bursts of laughter and scuffled noises. I looked back to see a table full of smiling, beautiful people. I watched for a minute and noticed that they were playing spoons with protein bars. I looked around the room to see my companions lying about and catching up on sleep as well. Realizing I could not go back to sleep, my next thought was to stretch. I gave myself a series of stretches going through various isolations of my body repeating a few for good measures. I then joined a circle of Ms. Prather, Mrs. Phemister, and Mrs. Bodkin and some students and chatted. We soon hauled luggage out the door and loaded the bus that would transport us to the airport.

When we arrived at the Arlington Airport, we were met with security. Once our entire group finally finished the process of making it through security, we walked through a long hallway like area while planning out what we would eat for lunch. We noticed about four places to get food, a convenience area of everything we might need, souvenirs and then at the end I found two cashier stations. This area functioned very differently from anything we had ever seen, so we all quickly dispersed to get food and met near our gate to eat and hang out. We soon made ourselves as at home as possible and camped out in chairs and on the floor. As we listened to the buzz of people, announcements and some sort of brass instrumentalist attempting to practice before his flight, we waited for our departure.

Finally, we boarded our flight to Dallas. Many people in our group got to catch up on sleep, however, I was not able to go to sleep so I instead chilled and listened to music next to sophomores Emma Sheets, and Taryn Glenn.

When we landed in Dallas, I was met with the time change of landing in Texas. This affected my senses and quickly made me realize that we had to relive more of the day once again. We ventured off to find more food and anxiously waited for our next flight home. We ended up playing games such as hacky-sac, catch, and dodgeball with hand warmers. I went to sit by Jorge Moraz as he signed a group of us stories. This proved to be an interesting experience because a man that was on our next flight came over and started playing hacky-sac with us. He noticed we were signing and he joined right in. He explained how he had not signed in forever and that his first girlfriend was deaf. We signed right along back to him, as he thought most of us were deaf. We eventually told him only two of our group were deaf. A woman later joined us and explained she was hard of hearing and her mother was deaf. I thought it was incredible that we were able to use sign language and connect with people throughout this whole trip.

We eventually boarded the plane and as we flew into the night, we saw an array of stars and pockets of from cities down below us. I thought of how there was so much life going on in each of those cities of light, and I thought of how we all get so caught up in our own life and do not take the time to realize the beauty life has to offer. This trip was a good opportunity to bring me back to focus on doing more living rather than going through the motions. In our little pocket of light, Canyon, I think we need to remember, as Ms. Prather has taught me, that there is so much more to the world. There are so many more cultures, peoples, societies and ways of life. On the plane, I thought about how I learned and experienced so much on our trip our families might not even realize. We were immersed into a beautiful culture and left behind our own for a little bit. We looked at life through a different perspective. We were able to appreciate another way of living and genuinely experience life.

Our group landed in Amarillo, Texas at 11:30 p.m. It was truly wonderful to greet our dearly missed family members who were anxiously awaiting our arrival. We immediately started telling the plethora of stories we had created from our wonderful experience to our families and said our goodbyes to new and old friends. Making my way back to my own life, although with a new perspective, I thought to myself of how amazing this voyage was and reminisced about all that I learned, saw and experienced in Washington D.C.