Midwest road trip: highlights

Last week, I drove down to Mizzou to defend my master’s thesis and officially complete graduate school by doing so. I drove nearly 1,200 miles in less than seven days and stopped in five cities on the drive.

The spedometer hit 100,000 miles on the CRV right as I was leaving for Mizzou!

The journey began in St. Louis where I stopped on my way to Columbia to meet up with some friends for lunch. I got to catch up with Shelley, my pledge mom and great friend from my sorority, at the Chesterfield shopping center—as well as my friend Yianni who studied in Greece this past year. We met in downtown Kirkwood, an adorable strip of restaurants and shopping. Having not spent much time in college caring about St. Louis, it made me smile to know I have some friends there and really check the city out.

Shelley and I getting frozen yogurt in St. Louis

After a few hours there, I went to Columbia to finish my degree requirements and spend quality time with my roommate Shaina, who is the only one of our roommates living in the apartment this summer. The rest of us sublet our rooms to three freshmen girls, so I was rather surprised to see about six to seven people living in our apartment throughout the time I stayed there. They had people on the couch, people who would come over at 11 p.m. — when I realized college is really the only time a living situation can be that insane. Needless to say, it was definitely a laugh-worthy experience and made for some funny stories. I got to see a few friends, sorority sisters and many of my teachers while at Mizzou too, which was a good way to say goodbye for the time being.

Holding the official document proving the passing of my thesis defense

Kansas City is one of my favorite Midwest cities because of the rich amount of entertainment opportunities it offers, the beautiful Plaza area to walk around and some fun places to go out. Not only did I get to see my friends’ Helen and Steve’s new apartment and hang out at their fratty pool, but I also got to see the Davison family and assorted friends, who have always kindly welcomed me to their home throughout college. We didn’t even need to go to museums or plan activities for the weekend, because there was enough to do just seeing each other and making plans without over-programming ourselves.

Steve, Helen, me, Laura, Adrian, Ryan and Talia at dinner at Gram & Dum on the Plaza in Kansas City 

Instead of driving back through Missouri, it was more ideal to drive through Iowa on 35 North to 80 East to get back home—estimated as an 8.5 hour drive. After the first four hours on the phone, I needed a break and looked at a map to see what was around. Iowa City, where University of Iowa is located, was right off the highway I was driving on so I decided to make a pit stop. Why not check out another college campus? I was mildly impressed—seeing Iowa City as a combination between Illinois’s campus in Champaign and Miami of Ohio’s campus in Oxford.

The back side of University of Iowa's "quad"

After dinner with Yiayia and Papou at my last stop in DeKalb, I made it home safely by 10 p.m. after nine hours on the road. Definitely a fun, bittersweet way to end the summer after graduation!