Chronicles of a Danville Uni Student

There’s nothing that brings two people together quite like waking up at five am and hopping on a bus every morning before the sun has even started to crack the horizon. To make things even more interesting, said bus is the bus running between Danville and Champaign, which means that it is often filled with odd characters. This situation is where sophomore Tina Wayne and I find ourselves every morning. We landed in this situation because we used to be the only Uni students from Danville and thus ended up carpooling through the Danville-Champaign bus and rides from our family. As much as the daily forty-five minute rides suck, the two of us have developed a rare and super close relationship over the past three years.

There’s a reason why people don’t typically engage in conversation at six am after four hours of sleep. When you’re that tired you don’t care about censoring yourself; you feel perfectly comfortable talking about absolutely anything. I can say with a great deal of certainty that there’s not a single topic we haven’t breached, from things deemed too “weird” to be socially acceptable to talk about to topics seen as too “inappropriate” for casual conversation. This variety in conversation has definitely led to some rather unusual conversation threads and quotes, but being able to share and talk about so much has helped to cultivate an incredibly unique and comfortable bond.

Besides the lack of filter you find at the wee hours of the morning, simply being around someone so much tends to lead toward close friendship. We spend at least around two hours together every day between the collective hour and a half spent travelling and the half hour we spend at Siebel at seven am waiting for the school to open. That’s ten hours a week of just the two of us entertaining whatever obscure topic of conversation we choose that day. That’s a lot of bonding time. We rarely ever make plans to hang out outside of carpooling simply because we don’t need to. Travelling alone is enough to cultivate a strong and comfortable bond.

In the ten hours per week that we see each other, Tina and I have formed a friendship where we can say absolutely anything we want and feel completely free from judgment doing so. I wouldn’t qualify our bond as simply a best friendship because it’s completely different than that. I also wouldn’t call it a sister-like bond because we never fight or have disputes; instead I’d label it as somewhere in between the two. No matter the label, however, it’s pretty amazing that something as simple as carpooling has created a friendship that I’m sure will continue far beyond high school. As much as I hate waking up at the crack of dawn, I’m so grateful that it has cultivated such a great and long-lasting companionship.

Perks of being Sixteen

About a month and a half ago I started driving, and I have no idea how I survived sixteen years without a license before then. Everyone said that driving is supposed to be the best thing ever for about two weeks and then the novelty wears off and you’re stuck being the family taxi driver. For me, it has actually become almost an addiction and I find myself getting grumpy and itching to go do something if I’ve gone a few days without it.

I hadn’t expected driving to be so cathartic for me, but I’ve found it immensely improving my mental state through many different ways. Driving tends to clear my head in some unfathomable way and it’s always nice to just go for a drive whenever I’m feeling down. There’s just something about being able to cruise alone down a country road at 11 pm blasting trap rap or French pop music that makes you feel a complete rush of euphoria and bliss. I find it similar to the emotional rush you feel when going through a  large city at night or stepping off a train and finding yourself in a new country for the first time. These moments are some of the rare moments you feel completely content and you can forget about whatever stress you’re dealing with, and they do wonders for the mind.

Driving is also cathartic in a less philosophical and more logical way. When you’re driving and controlling the car and playing whatever music you want, you’re totally in control. Being in control in a situation so delicate that if you twitch badly enough you could take a trip to the hospital (or even the morgue) is terrifying and stressful to some people, but it’s nothing but freeing to me. I like being in control of and having the responsibility for my own life because it allows me to be independent. In addition, I trust myself more than I trust others, so I feel much more comfortable being the one driving and completely at home in front of the steering wheel.

Finally, there’s the infamous freedom that comes with driving. Even though I don’t have a car, my mom usually lets me take the one we have if I want or need to go somewhere. I love being able to just hop in the car and run to Steak N’ Shake at 2 am suddenly for the banana shake I’m craving or make a trip to the store to pick up that face cleanser I’m almost out of. If I need to run to the nearest park and walk a trail to clear my head it’s as easy as jumping in the car. If I’m feeling lonely and bored all I need to do is find someone who is free that I can pick up and go somewhere with. It’s so freeing to be able to go anywhere you want almost anytime you want, and I try to spend as little time idly at home as possible.

Many of my friends still haven’t gotten their license despite being sixteen far longer than I have, and I can’t fathom how they can stand not being able to drive. Frankly, I can’t fathom how I stood it for sixteen years. All I know is I’m so glad I’m finally able to drive and to enjoy the freedom and control that comes with it.

My Favorite Summer Memory

The start of the new school year is a difficult time for everyone, and I am definitely no exception. This has been the best summer yet and I’m beyond sad to see the late nights out with friends and days dedicated entirely to binge-watching Netflix being replaced by late nights studying and stress over grades as I begin my junior year. There are countless different factors making this summer amazing, but I’d have to say that the biggest was the France Trip that took place this summer.

As everyone knows, each language class offers a trip every two years to the country affiliated with the language, and this summer I was one of the eleven students to fly overseas to France for three weeks. Now to provide a little personal background, I am completely obsessed with languages. They’re one of my biggest passions and I plan on trying my very hardest to spend the rest of my life constantly traveling, learning new languages and cultures as I go. Unfortunately, I had never been out of the country before this summer, so to say that I was excited for this three-week trip to Europe would be a massive understatement. I spent the months leading up to it simply ecstatic and unable to believe that I was finally going to get a taste of the life I hope to lead.

I remember the first few hours after landing in the Paris airport vividly. The first taste I got of France (besides the airport, which really doesn’t count because it’s just a couple hours of dragging heavy bags through a bunch of different lines) was on the bus riding into Paris. At first it looked just like America. There were a ton of trees and fields everywhere and not much else. It wasn’t until we started to see the buildings on the outskirts of Paris that I got hit with the first wave of “oh my god- I’m actually in Europe”. If you’ve never been, the architecture is surprisingly significantly different than that of America. I think since Paris is such a large and famous city I had foolishly expected to see a lot of gray skyscrapers filled with windows, similar to New York City, but my expectation couldn’t have been farther from reality. The city was a collection of cream and orange buildings that have either been there for centuries or are architecturally modeled off of buildings that have, almost none of which exceed the city-wide limitation of six floors. The stark contrast of France’s beauty of history and color versus America’s beauty of progress and intimidating skyscrapers was one of the most amazing things to me. It reminded me that there was so much of the world that I had yet to see and so much culture that I had yet to experience and I fell in love with Europe at that very instant.

This was definitely not the only moment I was overcome with emotion almost to the point of not being able to function simply because I was in Europe and surrounded by so much language, culture, and history, but I think it was my favorite of these moments simply because it was the first. Overall the trip this summer was the best experience of my life. I’m already head-over-heels in love with traveling and I can’t wait to pursue a lifetime full of it.