Go West, Young Zach

{ Allow me to apologize in advance, this is going to be a little lengthy like last time, but it is an all encompassing summary of a fantastic trip! Enjoy! }

In my last post, I quickly mentioned that I was composing it in a van on the way to Wheaton College and Chicago. As I write this one, I am in the van on the way back to school. Lots of fun things happened in between, and I would love to share!

For Fall Break, I had the amazing opportunity to go on a Student Government benchmarking trip to Wheaton College with three of my six fellow cabinet members. Additionally, we were able to experience the awesomeness of Chicago, but more on that in a bit.

This was my first time in another time zone, and it has also been the farthest west I have ever been. So, it was kind of a big deal! And, I loved every second of it. It was truly an amazing trip, and I would go so far as to say it was my favorite fall break in my four years of college.

Upon arriving at Wheaton, we were instantly greeted by a phenomenal group of people who were in Wheaton’s student government (SG), and they treated us to deep dish pizza (so good!) at a local pizza shop. In following, we gathered back at the SG office in Wheaton with their student government as well as some SG representatives from Taylor University in Indiana. We all bonded very quickly and discussed each of our respective SG structures on a high level. After that, I got to experience a bit of Wheaton apartment life with my campus host who was one of the executive vice presidents on Wheaton’s SG.

On Thursday, my fellow cabinet members and I met with our respective counterparts from Wheaton and Taylor and were able to get a little deeper into discussion about how our roles work at our respective institutions. It was truly a valuable learning experience, and it would be fair to say that we have a bunch of ideas to bring back with us to possibly shape or enhance the way we do things within our SG.

Our time with each other’s SG took most of the day, and it was most definitely a great experience. In the late afternoon, my group headed into Chicago with the end goal of seeing the Blue Man Group. Upon arriving in the city via the Metra (train), we had dinner at Boston Blackie’s, which is rather ironic since we were in Chicago... Needless to say, I enjoyed an absolutely phenomenal Boston Blackie’s burger and probably the best glass of raspberry iced tea that I have ever had. Post-dinner, we did a little walking and then finally gave up, hailed a taxi, and traveled up to the Briar Street Theatre where we saw the Blue Man Group. Our SG president was able to get us third row seats in the poncho section (if you have ever seen the Blue Man Group or heard about it, you’ll know exactly why we needed ponchos), but luckily we were not in the splash-zone. The show that the group put on was rather well done, and pretty funny at times. I really did not know what to expect, but I would definitely recommend going to see the group at least once to anybody; it is quite the experience.

On Friday, our group spent the morning visiting different places on Wheaton’s campus, particularly the Marion E. Wade Center. If you do not know the importance of this building and are a fan of C.S. Lewis, you definitely need to look into this and make every attempt to visit it. Various things of Lewis’ are on display at the Wade Center, particularly a desk he used, a pipe, a pen, and, most importantly, the wardrobe that helped to inspire The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! I was quite proud to get a picture next to that wardrobe. All of the items on display at the Wade Center were pretty legit, and I am more than happy for having the opportunity to have witnessed it all. The remainder of the morning involved seeing an excavated mastodon at the Wheaton Science Center, seeing the Billy Graham Center, and taking many pictures of the magnificent architecture and landscape of Wheaton College.

In the afternoon, we went back into Chicago with the primary goal of ascending the Sears Tower (now professionally known as the Willis Tower, but, apparently, native Chicagoans are a bit hostile toward this new name) and looking out over the city of the Skydeck. I have never ridden in a faster elevator, and words cannot adequately describe the beauty of the views we had from the tower. It was beyond exhilarating. We could see for miles, and it was simply stunning. Many pictures were taken (obviously), and we even got to stand on one of the glass ledges that protrudes from the tower for quite the [slightly intimidating] view. There is nothing quite like standing on glass and seeing the city directly below your feet. It was quite the mind-blowing experience.

After our experience in the tower, we explored Millennium Park which included seeing The Bean and The Great Lawn. We ended up eating dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on the Navy Pier, which was a fantastic choice. After walking around a little bit after dinner on the Pier, we took the subway back to the Metra station and left Chicago for the last time for our trip. It was indeed a bittersweet moment, but I suppose all good things come to an end eventually...

Overall, this trip to Wheaton College and Chicago was quite spectacular. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go, and I would certainly love to go back at some point. I feel as if I like cities more and more with every time I go into one. There’s just something about the general atmosphere and culture that is so invigoratingly awesome; honestly I do not know if I can quite put my finger on it, but I really do enjoy the urban culture. I will miss Chicago in the meantime, but I am definitely satisfied with how this fall break panned out.