Sam Pickett ‘21
Columns Editor
This past weekend, I went home to Indiana and got to meet with five admitted students. Anticipating that something interesting may happen on this journey, I volunteered to write this article. This is funny for two reasons. First, because I thought something exciting would happen in Indiana. This is not me taking a dig at Indiana, but rather me expressing a truth that I have come to know deeply in my many years living there. There is only so much time you can spend hanging out in local parks and wandering around Walmart before you conclude that the place you live is quite unremarkable.
Second, I am always excited about the idea of writing articles, but when it comes time to actually write, I always curse myself for volunteering. And yet, more and more over the last year I have continued to volunteer to write for the newspaper, even when I have absolutely no plan. So, when our wonderful EIC asked if we had any article ideas, I could have just said I will be out of town (and therefore unavailable to write). Instead, I am here in the Charlottesville airport, writing and cursing myself yet again. I’m sure I’ll be in this position again next week.
But what my journey back to Indiana really did was make me reflect on things. What things? I honestly don’t know, but I have some things I need to say about airports and Indiana and UVA and so you’ll just have to read to see the theme of this article. Thus, I have a compiled a list of… let’s call them observations, from my time “abroad.”
1) The Charlottesville airport is my mortal enemy: I knew this before this weekend because I have had two flights into Charlottesville canceled because of “fog.” While those two stories are for another time, this story is for now. For some reason, the plane meant to take me from Charlottesville to Charlotte was not on time. There were clear skies on Friday and beautiful weather and MANY of us trying to make VERY SHORT connections. The plane arrived at Charlottesville thirty minutes later than scheduled, we departed fifty minutes after we were supposed to, and I barely made my connection after sprinting—well, more like awkwardly jogging with my suitcase in hand and my backpack making me look like a turtle—through Charlotte’s airport. As I write this article, I am waiting again to fly into Charlottesville and praying my luck has changed. Though maybe I’m just deepening this curse.[1]
2) The Charlotte airport is much bigger than the map looks: I encourage you to Google what Charlotte’s airport map looks like. It looks quite small and manageable. Wrong. As I sprinted from terminal E to terminal C, what looks like a short distance, I was shook by how much I had to run. And running in the airport is my nightmare. There’s too many people and you look really awkward and it’s just miserable. Well, I did it. I ran in the airport and let me tell you, Charlotte is much bigger than it looks. Bonus observation: There are too many people in the Charlotte airport. Why were there so many people??
As referenced, Sam’s marathon from Concourse E to Concourse C. Photo Courtesy of airportshuttles.com
3) Indianapolis airport rules: Indianapolis International Airport is consistently ranked #1 in the United States, and compared to Charlottesville and Charlotte, I can see why. It’s clean, its men’s bathroom urinals have dividers, and it is efficient! There aren’t crazy long lines and there is plenty of space so you’re not always running into people or having to sit next to strangers. I hate sitting next to strangers. They also have a mechanical frozen yogurt dispenser. That was sick.
4) Admitted students are pretty cool: During my trip home, I was able to meet with five admitted students from various universities all over Indiana. They drove between one and two hours to meet with me and were very cheerful despite the fact that it was snowing outside. They had excellent questions and seemed excited about the possibility of someday joining law students like myself at bar review. After my experience with five admitted students, I am excited for Admitted Students Open House, when 200 of them will swarm our halls. Woohoo.[2]
5) Admitted students are much more successful than me: I didn’t want the conversation to go to what schools people had been admitted to, but in the way that admitted students converse, it went there. And they were schools that had not admitted me. L But I got to convince them how great school here is. J
6) How wonderful UVA really is. I tell you, when you’re chatting about the school it’s easy to sell it without even trying to sell it. And that’s how you know we have it good.
And THAT is what I thought about my weekend in Indiana.
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shp8dz@virginia.edu