This summer, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to not only get a free flight to San Francisco to attend one of my favorite types of events: a Hackathon.
Being somewhat interested in computer programming freshman year, I attended a coding event, or a Hackathon, run by Naperville North’s Computer Science club. This event was eye-opening: coming from a nonsocial middle school background, hanging out with like-minded students, and doing something I enjoyed (coding and problem solving), not to mention the endless pop and snacks we were provided, I quickly loved this kind of social event.
Fast forward to the pandemic, from competing in watered-down virtual hackathons to attending webinars, these Hackathons were very much incomparable to their in-person counterparts.
To end that somber note! There is a national organization, Hack Club, that helps to organize these coding events and sponsors high schoolers to run Hackathons. This year’s summer, they organized “Assemble” – a riff off of Marvel’s Avengers’ catchphrase. Their goal was to “assemble” all high schoolers to their San Francisco HQ, and they even offered travel stipends!
Since I was free about two weeks before school would start, I eagerly signed up and hoped I would get a stipend. Much to my excitement, I was able to get the stipend! I remember that summer afternoon when I raced to my computer to find a $500 flight that was reasonable (this was our stipend).
I was really excited to have the opportunity to get flown out to San Francisco for the sole purpose of coding! This would be pretty much my first vacation ever since the pandemic started, and more especially my first time flying/traveling alone.
I will admit, I spent much more time than I should’ve trying to make sure I wouldn’t get lost at O’hare Airport (and the San Francisco Airport). Looking at maps, and reading Slack (a communication platform) for Assemble, I was increasingly more excited to go.
Whew! With all of that exposé, I’ll touch a bit about me actually traveling!
Waking up at 4 AM on a Friday morning, my dad and I rushed to the airport so I could catch my flight. Arriving at the airport, I knew the lines for security would be lengthy, and my experience was no different. With the shortage of TSA and airport employees, I anxiously waited in line, hoping I wouldn’t miss my flight.
Getting through security – I was thrust into the chaotic and busy environment of a waking airport. Quick sidebar – in Chinese, there is a word for a really lively and happening place – 热闹(rè nào). What I find so great about this phrase is that, in English, rè means hot and nào means noisy – which almost perfectly describes the late summer chaotic terminal I had just stepped into).
I have, of course, taken flights out of O’hare before. Like relearning a forgotten skill, I found myself walking somewhat familiar routes and slowly finding my gate. Shockingly (or really not so shockingly) it wasn’t that hard to follow signs around an airport I was familiar with. As I sat down and waited for my boarding group, I knew the hardest part was about to come – navigating SFO (San Francisco Airport). Not only was it an unfamiliar environment – but I had read on Slack that I had to take a tram inside of the airport, and I had to navigate through an unfamiliar place. (In fact, the organizers made a video on walking through the San Francisco airport, and it was 8 minutes long and cut in some parts).
The flight itself was pretty uneventful – waking up at 4 AM meant that I would be spending my entire plane trip sleeping.
I would like to take this opportunity to talk about this kid – let’s call him Window Seat Kid. Considering my boarding group was last, this meant the plane was pretty much full when I got onto the plane.
My seat was the window seat, which happened to be occupied by Window Seat Kid as I found my seat. 1) I was too tired to argue too much and 2) the Window Seat kid refused to move. So I’m glad I pretty much slept for 4 hours straight! It made my newfound middle seat a bit better.
Landing in SFO, the unfamiliar environment was, to put it lightly, confusing. Terminal sizes twice as big as O’hare, travelers and employees alike yelling to each other, and leaving the dimly lit plane cabin into the bright California sun, I was definitely thrown off.
Then I had to find the train.
(A preview for next week)