With the end of the school year coming up, it's time to take a look back at all the ups and downs of the year; but mostly the ups. Not all people are good. For example, I am not a good person. I make a lot of bad life choices. We all make mistakes, but the question is, will we regret it, or not? Let's find out.
It all started one fateful Sunday night when I get a text from a friend of mine, "Wanna go to Chicago?" It was 8:30 p.m. at night, and at best we wouldn't leave till around 10 p.m. That would mean the arrival would be around 2 a.m. No Bueno. Well, as luck would have it, I did not have Monday classes and we were only going to stay for a day. "What can go wrong?" I thought to myself. So I said sure, why not. And if you couldn't tell already, a lot went wrong.
The trip started off nice and casual. It was me, my friend Kumar, my Little, Amir and the guy who funded it all, Big Jake. The first person to drive was Kumar. First things first on a road trip, you just gotta stop at a gas station to pick up some snacks and energy drinks. So, we did. I bought some beef jerky and a coffee while Amir bought a giant pickle. To this day, we have no idea why he bought a pickle from a gas station, but it happened. If you couldn't tell by now, buying the pickle was a bad idea. First off, it took forever to open, secondly, it's a pickle, from a gas station, and lastly, when we finally opened it, the pickle juices spilled everywhere. It stunk up the entire car. Amir took a bite and said it tasted awful, then he offered it up to anyone else in the car. We all took his word for it and politely declined. That was that. It was time for the pickle to end, so we tossed it out the window. Somewhere out on College Corner Road, there is a lone pickle just waiting to be eaten.
Nothing says road trip like some Fetty Wap. Actually, there some better artists to pick from, but Fetty Wap was in. It has been maybe 45 minutes since we've been on the road, and then the boys in blue decide to pull us over. Turns out we were going 97 in a 70. Whoops. Well, we got ticketed and then switched drivers. Thankfully it wasn't me, but Amir. So we drove and drove. Then came the switch for the next driver. I pretended to be asleep so I didn't have to drive. Big Jake was up. And he drove until we made it to Chicago. Score, we finally made it to the big city. It was almost 3 a.m. We found our hotel. It was an alleged five-star hotel, the Chicago Athletic Association. I took Big Jake's word for it. When we walked in, it was like a color blind person seeing color for the first time. It was dope. We had two rooms. Big Jake and Amir were in one while Kumar and I were in the other.
The rooms were pretty nice. Though there was one thing that I did not like about the hotel, which seems to be a trend among five-star hotels. Poor lighting. I guess it's just the cool thing to do. As we settled in, we decided to look at the amenities they provided for us. Then, it was shower and bed, we had a planned 7 a.m. wake up time. It didn't go that way.
After breakfast at this restaurant called Wildberry — which was fantastic by the way — we decided to go check out of the hotel and explore the city. We checked out and put our bags in the car, then we decided to hit the town. See what Chi-town has to offer us. We walked around and found a nice little bar somewhere in Chicago called Stocks and Blondes. We decided to check it out. We got in and ordered some drinks and just chilled. Amir had some friends in Chicago, so he was on the phone seeing what they were up to. Now, keep in mind it was a Monday after all, and people have these things called classes. Amir finally got off the phone and said that when his friends were done with classes, we could hang out and party with them. At this point, someone, I forgot who, maybe me, says, "Let's stay another night." We all looked at each other in silence for a minute. We went back and forth on the issue. Then, due to some miracle, we decided to stay another night. We booked a room at another alleged five-star hotel, The Godfrey Hotel. This was another bad life choice.
To be completely honest, it was to be expected that we were gonna stay an extra day. Sure, we all make mistakes in life, but if you change your thought process around it , maybe picking up and going to Chicago wasn't a mistake. Sure, at the time it seemed like a bad idea, but in the future, looking back, I wouldn't have it any other way.
