In a horse race, the final stretch in which the horses head
for home is usually the fastest part of the race and this is when the jockeys
whip their animals as hard as possible to try to spur them to victory. In a way
this was what the last couple of days had been like for me in St. Louis. Even
though there was no jockey making the days go by quickly they went by in a
flash. After staying up till 2 AM at Brandon’s saying our final goodbyes I was
off to Chicago for the Arlington Million Horse Race. It was a nice event and
the Arlington Park Horse Track made Fairmount Park (my local track) look like a
dump… which I guess it is. But either way everyone was all dressed up like the
Kentucky Derby and it was a great time. I even picked the winner! Real
Solution, a 10-1 longshot won through disqualification which some may say I
didn’t actually win but the other horse really did impair Real Solution from
winning so I will take that as a victory.
Right
when I got back to St. Louis it was straight into DEFCON 5. I quickly realized
that I had done absolutely no shopping in getting ready for my departure on
Thursday morning. So I spent the next few days running around with my mother,
buying supplies and clothes and anything else I might need in DC. This whole
time I was getting snapchats and exchanging text messages with some of my
friends who had already gone to college. My friends at Mizzou were doing what
Mizzou kids do and Pat was having a great time with Dayton along with my friend
Pete. Brandon was slugging through his first week of “Sperry” camp at Miami. He
calls it Sperry Camp because it’s not full-fledged boot camp but a softer
version of that. Anyway, to get back to my point, with every taste of college I
got from my friends the more excited I got to start my own college career. Then
came Wednesday.
Wednesday
(Yesterday) was my last full day in St. Louis. It was weird when my sister said
that I had less than 24 hours left in this house and in St. Louis. All the
excitement about college seemed to disappear in seconds when I realized that I
was leaving my hometown for a longtime. I woke up around 11 and left at 12 to pick up
my sister from her first day of school after which we went to Lion’s Choice, a
St. Louis favorite. Even though I did not go their very often I was still sad
knowing I wouldn’t have the opportunity to have a Roast Beef Sandwich until
Thanksgiving at least. I was planning on getting lunch with Steve but instead
realized that I had to make a treck across St. Louis. First to UMSL and then to
SLU in order to get my college credit sent to GW. UMSL has a really retarded
campus. At SLU I was able to meet up with Emily Alcorn, a girl from LIFE week
and Maryland that was starting her freshman year with move-in day on Wednesday.
I talked with her for a little bit and after seeing how excited she was to
start at SLU and what SLU was like on move-in I started feeling the excitement
a little bit. It wouldn’t have been fair if on my way back from SLU I didn’t
get caught in some early 5 o’clock traffic right? So finally, after doing some
last minute shoe shopping, I arrived at home around 6 for my last 10 hours in
St. Louis. What would most people do with that time? I don’t know probably
pack… but instead I opted for continuing on like it was a normal day and like I
was not leaving in a few hours… We had Imo’s for dinner, another St. Louis
favorite, and right after that it was like Pearl Harbor all over again. The
house was going crazy. Talk about waiting to the last minute, I got all of my
stuff together in around 4 hours and was up until 1 in the morning getting all
of my college stuff together. Every half hour or so throughout this ordeal I
would stop to pet and play with my dogs. I sincerely think that I will miss
them the most. Zoe and Barney are great dogs and I played with them every day.
There was never a stretch for more than 2 hours when I was home in which I did
not give both of them all of my attention and I could get away with saying it
was probably less than that. Some people will probably say that it is awful
that I am saying my dogs instead of my parents or my sister but I can skype
them and talk on the phone but I can’t do that with my dogs. They can put the
dogs on Skype but that’s not the same at all. Humans connect to each other by
talking. Humans connect to dogs by petting them and by playing fetch, two
things that Skype has not come out with features for yet. Finally, it came time
to sleep in my bed for the last time. I went to sleep rather quickly but that
sleep didn’t last long for I was awoken at 4 in the morning realizing that it
was time for me to go.
I was
out the door in a matter of minutes but still brushing my teeth in my sink for
the last time and just small things like that were making me question my
decision to go so far away to college. I know it’s stupid because even if I
went to Illinois or Indiana I would be leaving home but DC just seemed so far
away at this point. I took one last look at my room and headed downstairs for
the last time. Once down their I could tell that my mom had already started
crying. She had been up till 2 in the morning making sure all of my stuff was
ready and now she had to drive all the way to Dayton today. I hope she get’s
some sleep today before she leaves.
So as I
drove my car for the last time in a while I realized that this was it. I wasn’t
coming back for a long time and it will never be the same as when I was in high
school and living in St. Louis every day. But here’s to a new beginning and new
adventures in our nations capital. The stretch run went by fast but the next
race will go by quicker I can bet you that. So as I sit here on a plane to
Pittsburgh to visit my girlfriend before my parents pick me up to college and
look out y window to the rising sun it is pretty much perfect for as what I am
about to experience in life. Thank you St. Louis. It’s been real. Go Cardinals!
