Marty's thoughts on Chicago

I'll begin with the obligatory mentioning of the thirteen-hour bus ride from here to Chicago. It was as though time itself had just run out of gas in the middle of the nowhere and had to walk ten miles to get more. That was my most prominent thought on the way up to Chicago, along with discovering zen and the art of sleeping comfortably with two square feet of space. In all seriousness, the trip itself was worth the 26+ hour travel time twentyfold over. There were so many different aspects of the trip that I absolutely adored, so I suppose I'll start with my favorite:

Friends. When I first stepped in to the West Springfield Writing Center over two years ago as a timid sophomore, I thought to myself, "Oh no." It was the ultimate fear of every underclassmen: upperclassmen. These deified men and women had infinitely more experience with writing, social interaction, and life than I could ever hope to. By some celestial event, I was able to make friends with a handful of them at best, which I was extremely thankful for, especially considering that I wasn't really friends (and just barely acquaintances) with the two other sophomores in my class. That is how I learned the true value of friendship - having familiar faces to lead you through unfamiliar environments, and I hope that now some of my classmates who I had the pleasure of going to Chicago with have learned it too. I made great friends, and what friends I already had, we're that much closer now, the kind of closer that only wandering through Chicago together can describe. You all know who you are.

I think my next best experience was the convention itself. I learned that tutoring can mean so many different things to so many different people, a fact that would be well-remembered by any new or nervous tutors out there - there is no right or wrong way, there's only your way, and whatever makes that tutee happy to come back time and time again is what you should be striving for. All of the panels I went to were interesting (including a certain presentation about tutor identity), and at the end of the day, my perception had been broadened to extreme proportions. The convention taught me that sometimes an alternate point of view, seeing the issues shared by so many people from so many different angles is the best way for you to figure out your own solution.

 Chicago itself was brilliant once you got past the way it smelled. Plus the way people drove, too. And I think our waiter at one of the restaurants we went to was on something (the pizza was great, though). All in all, I'm extremely glad I went and I pity those who couldn't, or those who chose not to. Between all of the collective shenanigans, you missed quite an adventure.