AVID Road Trip Diary – Day 2
The trip continues as the Juniors visit several Southern California schools and enjoy a crazy night out in Irvine
The gang is enjoying the Student Center at UCI.
I woke up this morning, excited for what the day had in store.
The alarm went off at 6, and I got ready with my roommates before we headed to the lobby for breakfast. By 8, all of us in our matching AVID Road Trip t-shirts, we were on the bus and headed to Cal State Northridge.
When we first got to the school, we quickly saw the downside to doing the road trip so late in the year. Not much was open since mostly all Cal States have already graduated. On the upside, the campus was left for us to explore.
By noon we were at UCLA, getting a tour from sophomore Sam. The hour-long tour included many interesting facts of the campus life and activities that happened for all students to enjoy and take part of.
What I found interesting was the detailing of the buildings. Did you know Royce Hall has 52 imperfections, symbolizing how nothing can be perfect besides God? There’s also a building with the Harvard logo—we learned UCLA most commonly stands in as Harvard in a lot of the movies we watch.
What I also found meaningful at UCLA was the school spirit everyone carries proudly. Pride in school tradition and the love of being a Bruin. When I think of a college for me, that’s what I want: a place that greets me with open arms.
After our UCLA tour, we made our way to UC Irvine for another scavenger hunt. But when we arrived, we ran into Yellowjacket alums Karen Lopez and Krystal Castro from the class of 2021. They took some time out of their busy schedules to hang out with us to answer our questions about the school.
We also found more company . . . with the Starship food delivery robot that we all nearly tripped over!
To make the trip more fun, Ms. Contreras planned for us to leave Irvine around 4 to go to the Irvine Spectrum to hang out, get dinner, and watch a movie. Our groups all raced back to the bus, but one of the groups got lost on the campus. The few who were late suffered a terrible punishment: the last person had to sing on microphone in order to get back on the bus.
So right before we could leave we got a quick, out of breath verse of ‘Jingle Bells.’ I’ll keep the name of the singer to myself for now.
When we got to the Spectrum, we all went out to enjoy our time before our movie at 6:10.
Most went shopping, and some even rode the ferris wheel there. Later, we all met up again to watch “Guardians of the Galaxy 3.” I shouldn’t even say the name of the movie, because no doubt Mr. Dollins is going to ask me to write a review for it.
After the long, wonderful day, we checked back into the hotel, but just when we thought the night was over, our group left the hotel to try and get take out at Jack-in-the-Box. We found an insurmountable obstacle, however, when we couldn’t just walk through the drive-thru. We’re all AVID students, though, so we got creative and walked to a local grocery store to pick up our late night snacks.
We come back home tomorrow, which made me realize how fast the days are going and how quickly we will be back to reality.
Recently, the CHS Publications Department experienced a major theft as over $20,000 in photography equipment was stolen from our studio over Spring Break. This included all cameras. Any amount you donate will help rebuild our program. Thank you!
Natalie Solis is a senior at Colton High, writes for the Pepper Bough, is in AVID and has membership in the National Honors Society. She also runs for...