Day 0: Half a Mile of Hell

I woke up to my blaring 7 am alarm in a dazed state, suddenly remembering that TODAY IS THE DAY! Did I go to bed a little too late the night before from my final post-graduation yap session with my best friends? Maybe. But the excitement overcame!

My mom, Olga, and my grandfather, Victor, were going to help me drive down to DC, so they showed up at 8 am. This had been our planned leaving time, but, unsurprisingly, our personal items were not fully packed. This was our first introduction to 2025 Spokie Sarah’s accurately described “Spokes Standard Time” (+/- 30min to an hour standard time). 

Our send-off quickly turned into a full party, as another 2025 Spokie Ishaq stopped by to say hello, Sarah kindly brought the team Dunkin, Aarushi’s family brought Bagelsaurus for everyone, my boyfriend Noah came to say bye, and my mom and grandfather prepared to ride with us. Of course, party is a strong word, as the entire procession was filled with deep tears from both Aarushi and I. Both of us experienced such heartfelt sadness in leaving MIT, and hugged everyone maybe 5,000 times before getting in the minivan and finally making our grand departure with Nunu and Nate simultaneously departing in the cargo van carrying our bikes.

We truly thought we were in the clear, beginning our beautiful journey into the unknown when we were suddenly accosted by a loud “BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM” coming from both sides of the car and a piercing “WAAH WAAH WAAH WAAH” from the car’s flashing red dashboard. Oh no. It’s over. Half a mile of hell into our trip, my mom pulled our car over at a gas station, and we identified that the straps of the roof storage were slamming against the windows in the wind, and the car was upset that we had put heavy bags on the unbuckled middle seat. Within 5 minutes, Aarushi and my handy dandy engineering skills (surely unlocked through our recently acquired degrees) allowed us to fix the straps, buckle the seatbelt, and continue onwards in our journey.

My mom was a lifesaver in driving the first part of the way, letting Aarushi and I peacefully catch up on our lack of sleep post graduation. Aarushi was also getting a little sick, so she slept most of the day. My mom drove all the way to our first rest stop right before New York City, where, to my own great surprise, she laid out the FEAST she had packed for us in the car. Suddenly, we had delicious fresh vegetables, flavorful chicken, rice, potatoes, and pasta at a rest area’s picnic bench, and our hearts and stomachs were happy.

After lunch, I switched off with my mom, and we gossiped about graduation week and all of the changes to come. A few hours later, we stopped to get gas in New Jersey with the cargo van (where we all unanimously disagreed with letting someone else pump our gas), switched back to my mom driving, and finished our day-long journey to DC! Nate and Nunu were also rockstars in driving the HUMONGOUS cargo van with no incidents!

When we arrived in DC around 7:30 pm, we were greeted with a hugely warm welcome by Carmen, Drew, Caroline, and Aarushi’s family friends, Deepika and Nikunj, who had prepared THREE separate rooms with individual mattresses for us to sleep in, snacks, drinks, and dinner. Filling our stomachs with home-cooked Indian food (the best meatballs ever) and chatting with my mom, my grandpa, and Deepika and Nikunj’s kids and parents made me feel very happy and excited for a whole summer of meeting people all across the country.

At 10:00 pm, we began our official lock-in for the next day’s learning festival and realized the momentous task ahead of us. The Department of Corrections and Youth Services Center does not allow visitors to bring in any scissors, glass, or sharp objects. This meant we had to precut ALL of our felt, cardboard, and paper materials to accommodate 120 students the next day. Light work! Psyche.

At 1:00 am, Nate accurately declared that there is “no rest for the wicked,” accompanied by most of the team’s estimates that their learning festival preparation was “50-60% done” despite our expected 5:30 am wake up time.

At 1:30 am, we let Drew go to bed, since he was going to be our driver for the next day and we didn’t want him to be groggy at the wheel. For the next hour, in a delusional and dreary state, Nunu worked her magic on organization for the learning festivals, Caroline, Aarushi, and I cut out cardboard and felt, and Carmen and Nate finished measuring liquids.

At 2:30 am, the living room was magically clear, and we finally logged off for the night, full of nerves and excitement for our first-ever learning festival! Would 3 hours of sleep be enough to hold the team over for the day? I guess you’ll have to wait and hear from Drew tomorrow 🙂

Lots of love,

Tatiana ❤