Home At Last

It seems like everyone woke up at 5:30 AM today, so, surprisingly, I was the one who woke up the latest out of all of us. I set my alarm to wake up and get out of bed at 6:00 AM, since last night, right before I went to bed, I picked out the clothes I was going to wear today and just wore them to sleep. I didn’t have to change in the morning, so that saved a lot of time.

It was somewhat weird waking up to an empty room on the other side. Michelle had left yesterday, and it was strange to see the shelves and desk on her side bare of her things. It made me realize how much I’ve gotten used to having her around, but luckily, I didn’t have much time to dwell much on it as I brushed my teeth, took out the trash, and checked for anything I might have accidentally left behind.

I struggled with my luggage all the way down to the lobby, getting down there at exactly 6:45 AM. For a moment, I panicked and thought I was the last one, as I didn’t see Raqueeb, Lindsay, or Jahnvi yet, but apparently, I was the first one. Glancing at the time again and figuring I could make it, I made a mad dash up back to the fourth floor to see my room for the last time. I also went to Kara and Olivia’s room to say a quick goodbye to them. Kara also came down later to see us off in the lobby.

2nd floor lobby. I'll miss this place. 

By around 7:00 AM, all of our luggage was loaded onto the shuttle, and we were on our way to leave Chicago at last. During the ride, I messaged Karla and said my last goodbye to her (even though we already technically did that already last night). She wished me a safe flight, and I thanked her for being an awesome friend the past three weeks.

The flight was fairly uneventful. We managed to find seats in the back of the plane that allowed us to sit together, with Lindsay, Raqueeb, and I sitting in one row, and Jahnvi and Ms. Sciacca sitting in the row right next to us. Raqueeb basically slept the whole flight, while Lindsay slept a little and then just started watching something for the rest of the flight on her phone. There were babies sitting nearby us again, and whenever I wasn’t sleeping during the flight, I was mostly making funny faces at the babies; it was so adorable when they laughed or smiled back.

Walking to get our luggage

While we waited for the luggage, we noticed Raqueeb’s messy hair and strands of blond hair on his jacket that could only be Olivia’s. They shared the jacket so often during these past three weeks, I had no idea the jacket was actually Raqueeb’s; I had always assumed it was Olivia’s.

We were in for a big surprised once we got all of our luggage and took it outside to wait for our ride back to ECHS. I’m sure we all went, “No way!” when we saw the enormous limo-bus-shuttle pulled up. I wondered for a brief moment whether there was another cohort that Don has kept secret from us all this time that was coming back today and that we were supposed to pick up as well, because I could not make of sense of this humongous vehicle. The vehicle (I still don’t know what to call it) easily fit all of our luggage in the back and still had three rows of seats. I got the whole back row to myself. 

Limo? Bus? Shuttle? Van? What are you?

Unfortunately, I got a little carsick on the way back. Lindsay and Jahnvi called one of their friends, and I listened to parts of their conversation, which sounded quite entertaining, but mostly, the whole ride was just woozy for me.

At last, we arrived to ECHS, where I saw my family there already. I was still a little out of it because of the carsickness, but we all got together for some last group pictures. Hair was flying all over the place again, and it was like déjà vu from all the previous times we have taken group picture – except this was the last time. It was a little sad, parting with people I’ve spent three whole weeks with and have gotten to know for even longer, but I’m finally home, and I’m happy to be here.

Last time taking group photos