Magic in Chicago

I wasn’t planning on wearing a floral crown today, but I woke up severely tired this morning and decided that I would wear one to give myself a little boost.

Our day started with a quick breakfast at Starbucks (for me, it was a slice of banana walnut bread and a strawberry smoothie). After that, we all walked to the CTA and traveled to the stop nearest Northwestern University.

We split up into different campus tour groups. I was in a group of strangers since no one else picked the tour guide I did, Meghan White.

The tour was absolute magic.

Before the tour, my first impression of Northwestern was definitely one of admiration, but there were no real feelings. The moment Meghan started talking, though, I began to imagine myself at Northwestern: lying in the grass, chasing the squirrels, reading in the Harry Potter- like library, guarding The Rock, sitting in a classroom writing about the extinction of dinosaurs. It was a very instant transition.

I have only recently begun to feel excited about college, and this is the first time I have felt excited about applying to a college. This was my first campus tour, and Northwestern is the first school that I am sure I will be applying to. These are many firsts. Yes, this is exciting stuff!

After we left Northwestern, we ate lunch at Clark’s and then visited Beck’s Bookstore and the Deering Library on campus. (It’s the one that looks Harry Potter-ish.) When we arrived back at the hotel, I explored a little bit and found an empty conference room. The room had a large window seat and an interesting view of the beach, so I sat in that room for a while by myself, until I wandered back downstairs and the some of the others found me and asked me to go to the beach with them.

It was nice to run around on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan before getting ready for dinner at Spaggia with Aaron Zdawczyk, the Associate Director of Admission at Northwestern. We all dressed up and ate amazing food while talking and laughing and asking Aaron questions. The atmosphere was perfect. Our waiter was funny and excited about us being Californians since he came from California. It was just a very magical day today.

Thank you, ILC.