I’ve already blogged about it a little bit but I wanted to take the time to talk about my Greensboro trip to North Carolina last week. I went on the trip as a favor to the Undergraduate Admissions office that I work for here at Tech.

The trip was eye opening and fun – and not the least bit stressful – I’ve done several trips for things like the Yates Project, which are smaller college presentations at individual schools, as well as information sessions in the office, and lastly campus tours around Blacksburg. However, I’ve never travelled to a college fair where other colleges were also present, so it was really fun to be able to have this new experience.

It also happened to be completely by chance that a good friend of mine, Peter Velz, was also in town in Greensboro. He has been doing varying levels of work for the White House since he graduated a year before me, and he was so gracious to hook me up with a lot of opportunities over the past few months. It’s always nice because Peter isn’t one of those people who I really assumed I would keep in touch with after graduation, but we talk at least weekly, especially because we’ve both been afforded really cool opportunities to meet up every so often – like for Commencement, and for a political rally that Mrs. Obama’s team was planning in Greensboro, for the night after my visit to Mt. Zion Baptist Church.

So I headed down to Greensboro and had a really great fair, a majority of which I already reflected on.  I felt kinda VIP in the first place because back in the winter my mom encouraged me to become an Intercontinental Ambassador and Priority Club member, which I took her advice on of course. It ended up giving me “Priority Club” status at a lot of hotels, included the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, which I was staying at for the trip to try and rack up some points.  I walk in with Charlotte and the lady is like, “Excuse me, sir, we don’t accept pets.” I delivered the ever-famous line,

“Ma’am, she’s not a pet. She’s a service animal.”

After making a few awkward glances and requesting papers – I informed her that it’s actually against ADA law to ask a disabled individual for papers documenting the fact that your pet is a service animal. She promptly recanted, and gave me the key for my room, after thanking me for being a priority club, and referring to me as Mr. Like takin’ candy from a baby.

That night, after the fair, I had dinner at the hotel with Char, and then went to meet up with Peter, who was setting up for the rally the next day. After he showed me around UNCG’s basketball stadium where it was being held, we left to go ‘out on the town’ for a bit.

After stopping by his beautiful hotel, we headed to Wendy’s and then to Cookout, and then back to the hotel to enjoy some time at the bar. If I learned one thing from this trip? Don’t do the Watermelon milkshake at Cookout. Yes, it’s seasonal, and yes it’s different, but my taste buds just weren’t pleased.

I headed back to the hotel, after a long sleepless night from the night before because Charlotte had been acting funny, and was pumped to relaxed in the over-sized hotel bed. The next morning, I woke up and sat by the pool for a little bit, took a quick dip, and then got packed up and ready to go to the rally.

The highlight of my trip, aside from the students that made a mark on me (like the student who approached my booth with a full on resume, as a 10th grader, and declared her interest in Mechanical Engineering program – which was startling seeing as most freshman aren’t even sure what branch of engineering they’d like to begin in!) was the fact that Mrs. Obama actually remembered me! I felt really VIP rolling up to the event without a ticket and being able to be wisked in. :) The rally was interesting – although I’m not a big fan of politics, I did accept the rally for what it was – an event to get the community excited about voting for President Obama.

When leaving the rally, I had a few really cool experiences:

• I ran into a girl who saw that I was wearing a Virginia Tech alumni t-shirt. She mentioned that she had just graduated from Sweet Briar, a school from which a friend of mine from high school just graduated – and I had actually just seen that friend at a bar in downtown Fredericksburg. So that was pretty cool.
• I walked by a White House staffer in the hallway, and just because I was wearing my Virginia Tech alumni shirt, a lady turned around and said “Go Hokies, right!?” That was after there was an Obama volunteer that decided to let me know was a cavalier. Cool.
• There was a police officer, in an unmarked car (a KIA at that!! WTF), who was putting a cooler of water into the car. And so – it was hot – so I decided to ask him for a bottle of water. After he hands over the water, and I return the favor with an Actively Caring bracelet, what does he say? Go. Hokies.