#549 School field trip day

Neil Pasricha

It all starts with the permission slip.

Yes, when teachers send them home before the bell rings so parents can rubber stamp the bumpy yellow bus trip to the museum, then it’s on, my friends, it’s on.

Soon the days count down and the buzz builds up as the class gets ready for the day away from school. The middle-ages unit wraps up at Medieval Times, paintings are handed in before the art gallery, and everyone mails a friend a letter before the tour of the post office.

On the morning of the big day you wake up with some extra pep in your step because you know we’re all going far away. It’s time to skip the portables, soggy sandwiches, and long afternoons with the Spanish teacher.

It’s time to do something different.

It’s time … to go for a ride.

Yes, whether it’s the petting zoo, chocolate factory, or a long hike in the woods, it’s time to enjoy the school vacation with some of the following perks:

1. Subs in the house. Taking thirty screaming seven-year-olds to the planetarium is a bit much, so most teachers call in backups in the form of parent chaperones. These subs act like a sweet and sweatered army of substitutes and don’t know enough names or have enough power to mess up the fun. Of course, that’s assuming they’re not your mom or dad. If that happens, your day is done.

2. Wheels on the bus. They go round and round on the way there and back. Yeah, we all gang rush into the slippery seatbelt-free seats and enjoy a loud, laughing party on wheels. There are loud screechy songs, secret makeout sessions, and some friendly gestures at passing motorists. This is also when the classroom’s social structure is on display too — from the cool kids at the back to the nerds sitting with the teacher up front. I really did love sitting up front though. I mean, how about that view?

3. Sealing it in. A friend and I were strolling quickly through an art gallery a couple years back when we stumbled on a group of kindergartners holding a rope and looking at splotchy art paintings. I’ll never remember the jaw-dropping look of pure head-tilting amazement from the little boy at the end of the group — eyes twinkling, mittens hanging out his winter coat, and his whirring brain soaking and swallowing up something beautiful on the wall. And it’s true: field trips often help seal in the learning. Chalk one up for school.

So… let’s enjoy the memories, let’s enjoy the moments, and let’s enjoy the parking lot speed bumps. Yes, let’s all love those special days when dusty chalkboards fade away and buses wheel us down the freeway, far away, far away, far away.

AWESOME!

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Photos from: here, here, here, and here

2,210 thoughts to “#549 School field trip day”

  1. when you’re out-of-town favorite sports team is playing on national TV. because you don’t get to watch them live very often, so when it happens on national tv, its just AWESOME.

      1. wow Freddo. i didn’t even see this one. Neil is just on top of his game. i LOVE chargers too. too bad LT is gone tho haha. In Phillip We Trust.

  3. Waking up on a Saturday thinking its a weekday then realising its a weekend and you don’t have to get up. Nothing beats that feeling.

  5. I find quoting the most inane things amazing. I can reference something completely out-of-the-way, and you’ll sit there and wonder what I just alluded to. Favorite things to quote:
    1. Pokemon. It’s not just for kids; I mean, I’ve had it for years and still can barely beat the Pokemon League. I go around saying “Charamander used FLAME THROWER! SUPER EFFECTIVE! Bulasaur FAINTED!”
    2. Old Spice commercials. I quote ALL of the “Hello, Ladies” one. I wrote it one my friend’s notebook. Win.
    3. How I Met Your Mother. “YOU have a wheelie bag? I have a wheelie bag!” It’s epic yelling it in the halls.
    4. Julius Caesar. “BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!” Nothing beats quoting Shakespeare, sweetie.
    5. This Is It. MJ: “It’s like a fist. In my ear.”
    6. HARRY POTTER. “Who’s that? Who’s THAT? That’s Sirius Black, that is! He’s a murderer. Got himself locked up in Azkaban for it. He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who. Reckon you’ve heard of him.” And alluding to the books is even better. “THE EASY BUTTON! It’s a – it’s a horcrux!”
    7. And, finally:
    The Beatles! Who doesn’t love turning every statement into something Beatles-centric? “I was watching the news–” “‘I read the news today, oh boy.'” “I live on–” “Penny Lane, there is a…”

  6. Contests for free stuff!

    Yes sir, it’s awesome to be in the race for that something special thing you’ve been wanting for a long time!

  7. When your sunburn fades away:

    Being as pasty as I am, I get sunburned QUITE easily. If it’s a light one, it’ll be faded the next morning, but if it’s one of those burns that bothers you for days or even weeks, it is even more special when you realize it has finally faded away.

    Regardless of its severity or your skin tone, it is no doubtedly beautiful moment when you can officially claim it as either a tan, or gone.

  10. That one day when you and your friends break out in Disney song randomly. I had Hakuna Mutata stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

    It makes you feel like a little kid again.

    AWESOME

      1. “Come my little friends, as we all sing a happy little working song!
        Merry little voices clear and strong,
        come and roll your sleeves up (so to speak) and pitch in,
        cleaning crud up in the kitchen
        as we sing along…”

        yessssssss!

  11. Sometimes you have a really late night working on something, and at one point you’re inevitably so tired that writing one sentence takes ten minutes. Finally, you get to sleep, only to wake up 2 hours later to start the day. What’s awesome is coming home at the end of the day, and taking a nap that lasts longer than you slept last night, and then upon waking up, thinking it’s morning when it’s really evening and feeling completely disoriented. Awesome!

  12. When you’re dancing with someone with whom you really click. Your bodies are close, and you can feel the rhythm of each other’s bodies. And every move, every step is perfectly matched by your partner, and you’re perfectly in sync. You know each other so well that you can read what they’ll do next, and it’s exactly the same thing you would have done. And on top of all this, the rhythm of the music, and the vibrations of the music resonate in both of you, and you can feel the resonance in the other person, and everything just flows into the dance, the music, and your partner. For that dance, you’re as one, and the rest of the world just goes away. Awesome.

  13. The smell of the steaming pavement after a warm summer rain.

    Whether you’ve just run around in it, or just stepped out side for the smell, it’s AWESOME.

    1. Putting on really old shoes and thinking about where you’ve been and what you’ve done in them. That’s always awesome.

  15. When you come across grammar mistakes in a book. i.e.: Forgetting your smart quote, a comma, to capitalize a name. Love it; so you can go get a pen and mark it up.
    AWESOME!

  18. My awesome thing can be related to by anyone who has taken more than one class in their lives. It is AWESOME to receive an assignment from a professor that you have already completed for another class. All that hard work for two (hopefully awesome) grades!

  19. I hope this one isn’t too corny but….

    Receiving your very first comment on your brand new blog!

    I remember the excitement I felt when I discovered that someone else was reading my stuff and liked it. It’s a pretty awesome feeling!

  20. When you wake up in the middle of the night for whatever reason ( you need to pee, kid is crying, bad dream, etc) and you realize you have a few more hours left to sleep. Ah, bliss!

  23. I once saw a young guy pull out of a petrol station who had left his soft drink bottle on the top of his car. There was a cab driver over the road who was doing hand signals trying to get the young guy to realise and kept pointing to the space above his head to represent the roof of the car. Being an observer who could see exactly what was going on and also being able to see the young guy’s confusion at the cab drivers monkey dance was pretty awesome.

  24. When you finish a hard workout

    Sure, the workout itself was hell. Running, swimming, biking, you name it. It takes so much motivation just to get out there. And sometimes it’s painful and all you want to do is stop. But you push through, because when you reach the end you feel so good about yourself. It’s that exhausted, hyped up on adrenaline, accomplished feeling that just can’t be beat.

    Awesome!

  25. Unexpectedly coming across a breathtaking view.

    I walked to a friend’s house, and there was about 200 steps up to her street(she lives at the top of the hill) I was halfway up when i happened to turn around and saw the sparkling ocean and a large part of San Francisco.

    It was definitely awesome!

  26. What is awesome to me? Awesome is having my 2.5 year old daughter just RANDOMLY tell me and my wife: “I love you guys.”

    It’s so pure. It’s so Claire. It’s so incredibly awesome.

  29. Leaving 1K AT (‘1000 Awesome Things’ acronym, catchy ain’t it?) or any other amusing Blog go for about a week or two and then I come back to a solid days worth of awesome! (or ‘cake wrecks’ or ‘postcards from yo momma’ or ‘passiveaggressivenotes’) Nothing like comfortably slouching on the computer to read all those updates you were just itching to scan earlier this week.

  30. There’s nothing better than waking up to a persistent little head-nudge from my sweet kitty girl, Weebie Louise.

    Okay, if I don’t wake up fast, that would be a very persistent head-butt!

    Either way, awesome….

  31. When you’re walking up to a red light and the white man turns right in time to keep walking.

  32. DIY
    There’ no better feeling than when you do something yourself. When I learned to blow dry my own hair I felt like I could take over the world. It is definitely AWESOME!

  33. Cousins

    They are like built in friends. Whether you know them your whole life or meet them for the first time as adults, you will almost always get along. You can just be yourself and have fun cuz you know they will love you no matter what because of that 12.5% of your DNA that you have in common with them. They will always have your back and be there through the good and the bad.
    Awesome!

  34. Finding a garage sale that has not one, but many of the things you’ve been looking for, and they are all in good condition. It’s one-stop shopping – cheap! Awesome!

  35. Finishing a project “last minute” only to find out it’s not due until the following week. Especially for us procrastinators…Awesome.

  39. School shopping.

    The school paraphernalia adrenaline is pumping and for a brief moment all you can really consider is the clicky pencil/classy number two dilemma. We won’t even think about the back pack debacle- though everyone knows rolly backpacks are a definite no-go.

    You’re packed your arm basket full and you leave having indulged the in the school supply buffet. Bags in hand; you’re satisfied! Anticipating the whole ride home about unwrapping it all, meticulously packing your new backpack, and organizing your new folder. Sure, school doesn’t start for a week. But that’s ok. You’ll need to rearrange in a few days anyway.

    University is about discovering what you really like… even school supplies.

  40. I submit that wearing pre-pregnancy shoes during your entire pregnancy is awesome. Nine months of weight gain, and you can still wear your favorite shoes makes things a little bit better.

  41. Hearing from your 16 year old son, “Mom you’re my favorite person on earth”. Wow, Awesome! Because you know he doesn’t always feel that way. So you revel in the moment and soak it up for all it’s worth. Later, when you ask him to take ou the garbage, or ground him from driving too fast, he’ll waver on that earlier, glorious opinion. But for this moment, fresh out of the teen’s mouth, for you, the mom, it’s Awesome!

  42. Eating after swimming.
    After a long day of swimming, in the hot summer day, playing with your water toys and splashing your friends, you hear your mom come with those peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches chips and a feast of food. running out of the pool, and taking that first bite of goodness just began to feel like the best meal you’ve ever had in your entire life.

  44. When you see little kids wearing costumes when it’s not Halloween. It’s the funniest/cutest thing. You know they begged their parents for hours to wear that tutu to the grocery store, or those ruby high-heels to breakfast. They feel so awesome and are all ready with a “Thank-you” when you say how handsome they look in their fireman hat. It doesn’t even have to be costumes either, it’s just as cute when they’re wearing bright mismatched socks with new sandals with the stickers still on them because they couldn’t wait to wear them. In those moments you just have to smile because you know they worked hard to wear that and they won in the battle of parents vs kids and are loving it. So next time you see a little girl in her princess gown in the summer or a little boy in his spidey suit in April, make sure you stop and tell them that they look….AWESOME!

  45. when you sneeze in public, and a stranger says “bless you!” and restores your faith in humanity is nothing other than
    AWESOME!

  46. The look on a child’s face when you give them a present that they REALLY enjoy.

    Remember in those weeks you spent at the shopping mall frantically trying to figure out what would be a great present for them? The hours spent walking from store to store so much until your feet hurt so much you can’t walk anymore?
    Fast-foreward a few weeks to Christmas morning or on their Birthday. They grab your reused wrapping paper with the tacky kittens on it, tear open the package and… WHAM… your hit the the full-fledged shine of the 8 year-old happiness face! You shrug and tell them it’s nothing as they rush over to give you a HUGE thank-you-hug!!!

    AWESOME!!!!

  48. When you think there is nothing good on TV until you stumble across a channel that just so happens to be playing a marathon of your favorite tv show or movie.

  49. Coming home after work and seeing your loved one through the window, and the moment they look up and see you coming. This works especially well for when your pets see you coming home too. Awesome!

  50. Sitting in a hot car on a sunny day. There are just a few days during the year that this is actually enjoyable. It’s usually a spring or fall day when the sun is shining strong, but the air outside is just a little cool. AWESOME!

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