InTune Two [6]
Welcome back to another segment of InTune! This episode is totally different from my usual, just music focus, instead I want to talk about my day at Penn State University for the Pennsylvania Scholastic Press Association state competition hosted by the Donald P. Bellisario College in the Hetzel Union Building-Robeson Center (HUB.) Seven other students went along that day, including myself. It was a chaotic, fun eventful day, while Associate Editor, Charlie Kephart tagged along with me for the day.
And to tie my music in, because who would I be without music, here’s a playlist I would recommend to anyone stuck in a car ride with their friends on their way to Penn State (FYI this is what we played.)
The best part of travelling anywhere, is the act of travelling. Car rides are squished and uncomfortable, but only if you allow it to be that way. My van ride was extremely fun purely because of the fact I could not figure out how to connect my phone to the van’s Bluetooth so my crew was stuck listening to Froggy 98.1. My van was driven by the one-and-only Mrs. Vanish, with me passenger (of course,) and the associate editors; Charlie, Maddie, Emmalee, Cider, and my second-half (editor in chief) Jaidyn. It started out dreadful. Bad music, rainy day, and enough silence to kill a man. I eventually made a group chat, with all of the previously mentioned members – exempting Mrs. Vanish – and adding our other associate, Mattie. Very quickly, this ride went from dreadfully silent, to struggling to keep our laughter in from the various texts sent. It honestly was the best range, from music, to pictures of Rusty and oddly enough, Jojo Swia and Jesus. Compared to last years drive, this year’s was much funnier and more enjoyable. I’m sad this was my last with this group, but I’m extremely grateful I got to be in the van with this group.
When we got to Penn State, it was pouring and the most dreadful gray color imaginable outside, and we had to walk to the Hub in order to get to the check-in and opening remarks. While waiting, a few of us went to the mini Starbucks, and got the breakfast provided for us, and that started by far one of my favorite days ever for the 2024 school year (Please let Panera cater forever, they have the best breakfast.)
After the press conference, Mrs. Vanish let us explore the Hub and go to the Penn State Berkey Creamery. Charlie, Maddie and I all booked it to the Creamery, in hopes of making it back by the time Mrs. Vanish had told us to. I, of course, got “WPSU Coffee Break” while Maddie and Charlie were unoriginal and got “Peachy Paturno.” I’ve been to the PSU Campus enough times in my lifetime to know how to get to the Hub from the Creamery, but to our avail, there was construction in my typical pathway, which threw me off enough to not know what I was doing at all. This led to by-far one of the funniest interactions I’ve ever witnessed. Maddie was trying to ask a man where to go and he gave her the dirtiest look and walked right past her, which resulted in Charlie and I to giggle. Maddie brushed it off, college kids are busy, places to be y’know. A nice girl walked over and asked if we needed help and gave the much-needed directions – where we safely arrived back to the Hub, a few minutes early.
Not much later, it was time for lunch. If there’s anywhere I love to eat, it’s at the Hub. Last year, I got the Panda Express, and this year Charlie and I tried something new, Slim Chicken.
That was the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever had in my whole life.
No exaggeration, I hate chicken sandwiches, but Slim Chicken has one of the best methods to making chicken ever. Charlie and I agreed that this sandwich alone, was better than Chic-Fil-A and any other chain. The sandwich was breaded amazingly, with nothing on it except a dill-pickle ranch and pickles. The simplicity is what sold it, as it was packed with so much flavor it didn’t need dressed up with endless toppings to get flavor, it was infused with more flavor than I thought was possible. Charlie then ended up buying another sandwich to take home, and successfully smuggled a chicken sandwich out of Penn State, which was one of the funniest moments of my life.
During our lunch break, Charlie and I also decided to take it up on ourselves to explore the Hub a little and we ended up finding the prettiest Drag Queens ever. They were so kind and we got free mom hugs from their table, along with a free mom hugs pom-pom and sticker saying, ‘You’ve been hugged.’ Later, they were playing a game of bingo upstairs, which I was extremely jealous of not being able to go to due to our planned agenda.
After lunch was the roundtables, where I met so many amazing student journalists that were unbelievably kind. My circle decided to just chat before the ‘assignment’ was given to us, which was enjoyable to avoid the awkward small talk that nearly everyone experiences. Then, we met some of the college students who had various planned degrees, all equally as nice. As a senior, being able to ask students from the college was nice to hear the raw, truthful answers to all of our random questions. From dorms, to degrees and even our hometowns not a single question was put down.
The rest of the day was relatively mellow, keynote speakers, and the results. Both of which, I did not pay much attention to as my freedom from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. was taken and I was still stuck in lala land.
The van ride home was also pretty mellow compared to the beginning, except this time I finally got to connect to the van for music. The car ride home was alright, I was more focused on getting home and going to dance. Nothing spectacular happened, just all of us winding down from an ever-so exciting day.
