It’s Thursday night. I’m sitting on a plane, headed to Claremont.
Tomorrow, Friday (I guess today now that I’m posting this), will be my first day on campus for the 2012-2013 academic year. I will have to get used to telling people I’m a sophomore. I will have to declare a major second semester.
But, for today, I’m going to ignore all that. It’s my first day back on campus, and I’m going to Disneyland.
Yes, you read that right. No, it’s not a joke. I’m actually going to Disneyland.
Let me explain.
My family has always been obsessed with Disney. Despite being from the Seattle area, I visited Disneyland quite a few times in my childhood. And Disneyworld. And a Disney cruise. And now, at Pomona, I live 45 minutes away from the happiest place on earth. (I could be super cheesy and say, “No, the second happiest, because Pomona is the happiest.”) It’d be a crime NOT to take advantage of this.
Oh, and I’m going alone. To Disneyland. This might be just a little too weird for you.
Let me explain.
My sister (who’s three years older and went to Scripps) got involved in scavenger hunts at Disneyland. Then, I moved down here, they had an open spot on their team, and I got involved. I’m the puzzle solver. As in, they practically drag me around the park while I scrawl unintelligible things on a clipboard and occasionally exclaim, “OH!” Why do we do it? What do we win? If we’re lucky, a silly little prize package of things no one really wants. But mostly, it’s for the satisfaction and that sense of accomplishment when you solve something difficult.
Thing is, there’s a scavenger hunt coming up at the end of September, and my team divides up the park into sections that we individually focus on. So, I’m going to Disneyland to study all the minutia of my “zones,” as we like to call them.
Yeah, people who go to Pomona may be some of the few who go to Disneyland to do research. But hey, I think it’s fun.