by Adrienne Graham
I walked into a white walled room, room 19, and I thought, wow it’s been a while since I’ve had a room.
And a room mate, she greeted me and my mom as she walked out, and I looked around to see two beds on each side of the room which were almost 2 feet off the ground, two rolling drawers and two separate desks, I like it so far, and we also got a folder with information about the workshop and some supplies.
After that the students along with some of their parents walked to the Marshals Building where the workshop will be held for the remainder of the stay for the workshop, and where we meet the director, Elena. We go into what they call a reading room to meet and listen to reporters who have worked for the LA Times and The New York Times, they give us some type of good luck message and we're off. As we leave, a few students' parents leave and we all have greeted everyone. We get together in a circle with chairs, sadly we're not playing magical chairs. We're meeting new people and throwing our ideas out there for what we're doing for a column or an article for the Chronicle.
Finally we all walked back to the dorm where we got a chance to finally unpack, settle down, and meet our roommates. We all gather in the lounge as the mentors set up the room. BAM the aroma of pasta and garlic bread hit you like a truck. We sit and await out food like 3 year olds getting ice cream or a new toy, after we eat we clean up and we all applauded the chef and get ready for a walk that the mentors and Elena will be talking us on.
We walk down to a street called 4th which is well known around Tucson. I walk blindly because I’ve never been to this part of town nor have I been to this town for that matter, but still I walk on like I know where I’m going. I am astonished by all the street art, the sculptures and the graffiti-type paintings on stores, of course I took snap chat photos and other photos. We keep walking to the point where it looks like we're all walking to go to a bar. Of course me being out of town keep walking past the group's turning point and Kayla, a friend of mine, was teasing me about walking down there and coming back up drunk and to me it was annoying.
We walked and a lot of us had taken pictures for our articles with the provided cameras. We walked into a “hippie” store. We opened the door and were hit with a wave of fruity and exotic smells of the store, we walked around to admire the unique clothing. I had walked to the back to see “bongs” for Marijuana, from there you could obviously see Bob Marley shirts and flags along with Jimmy Hendricks hanging on the wall. We all walked out, some with mental notes saying “oh I’m coming back” and some saying it was a nice store but didn’t have any interest.
It was time to go back to the dorm because we had seen all of the magic qualities of 4th street. We get to University and one of the mentors mentions that he needs to get toothpaste because he forgot his at home. We go to the CVS and he gets what he needs so do many other students. We go out and see that Amanda, one of the mentors, and Elena are across the street looking around for us, we try and fail many times to call Amanda’s name until she looks across the street to see us crossing, we make a small greeting and Elena says she need two girls to help her get some food from the Marshall building, so after we pack up some goodies, we leave and meet up with the rest at the lounge and everyone is just chilling out after that long spectacular walk.
That night I reflect about my day and I pause, sit and thought "wow" that’s a lot for someone to process because I just met other talented and creative people who I will maybe see again in my lifetime. I think “I…I think I’m going to like it here”. I also thought I’m gonna go home with all this knowledge and have something to say about what I did, what I saw and what it was like to be on my own like I was in college.
So I say to anyone thinking about going into this workshop, DO IT! There is nothing like it, but sure there will be pressure and getting out of your comfort zone but its worth it.
And a room mate, she greeted me and my mom as she walked out, and I looked around to see two beds on each side of the room which were almost 2 feet off the ground, two rolling drawers and two separate desks, I like it so far, and we also got a folder with information about the workshop and some supplies.
After that the students along with some of their parents walked to the Marshals Building where the workshop will be held for the remainder of the stay for the workshop, and where we meet the director, Elena. We go into what they call a reading room to meet and listen to reporters who have worked for the LA Times and The New York Times, they give us some type of good luck message and we're off. As we leave, a few students' parents leave and we all have greeted everyone. We get together in a circle with chairs, sadly we're not playing magical chairs. We're meeting new people and throwing our ideas out there for what we're doing for a column or an article for the Chronicle.
Finally we all walked back to the dorm where we got a chance to finally unpack, settle down, and meet our roommates. We all gather in the lounge as the mentors set up the room. BAM the aroma of pasta and garlic bread hit you like a truck. We sit and await out food like 3 year olds getting ice cream or a new toy, after we eat we clean up and we all applauded the chef and get ready for a walk that the mentors and Elena will be talking us on.
We walk down to a street called 4th which is well known around Tucson. I walk blindly because I’ve never been to this part of town nor have I been to this town for that matter, but still I walk on like I know where I’m going. I am astonished by all the street art, the sculptures and the graffiti-type paintings on stores, of course I took snap chat photos and other photos. We keep walking to the point where it looks like we're all walking to go to a bar. Of course me being out of town keep walking past the group's turning point and Kayla, a friend of mine, was teasing me about walking down there and coming back up drunk and to me it was annoying.
We walked and a lot of us had taken pictures for our articles with the provided cameras. We walked into a “hippie” store. We opened the door and were hit with a wave of fruity and exotic smells of the store, we walked around to admire the unique clothing. I had walked to the back to see “bongs” for Marijuana, from there you could obviously see Bob Marley shirts and flags along with Jimmy Hendricks hanging on the wall. We all walked out, some with mental notes saying “oh I’m coming back” and some saying it was a nice store but didn’t have any interest.
It was time to go back to the dorm because we had seen all of the magic qualities of 4th street. We get to University and one of the mentors mentions that he needs to get toothpaste because he forgot his at home. We go to the CVS and he gets what he needs so do many other students. We go out and see that Amanda, one of the mentors, and Elena are across the street looking around for us, we try and fail many times to call Amanda’s name until she looks across the street to see us crossing, we make a small greeting and Elena says she need two girls to help her get some food from the Marshall building, so after we pack up some goodies, we leave and meet up with the rest at the lounge and everyone is just chilling out after that long spectacular walk.
That night I reflect about my day and I pause, sit and thought "wow" that’s a lot for someone to process because I just met other talented and creative people who I will maybe see again in my lifetime. I think “I…I think I’m going to like it here”. I also thought I’m gonna go home with all this knowledge and have something to say about what I did, what I saw and what it was like to be on my own like I was in college.
So I say to anyone thinking about going into this workshop, DO IT! There is nothing like it, but sure there will be pressure and getting out of your comfort zone but its worth it.