On April 9, 2016, I went to New York for the first time. My college is only about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the city, and someone had coordinated a coach bus from the Athletic Department to pick us up at 6 a.m. and bring us back at 5 p.m. To prepare, my friends and I made a list of all the places we wanted to go. The bus was going to drop us off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so we were going to explore the Met, find 30 Rock (the NBC building), see Times Square, and find the theaters of all our favorite Broadway shows. The following are some of the thoughts I had during all this.

1. "I’m really surprised I actually got sleep last night. I’m usually the kid at Christmas who can’t sleep past 3:30 in the morning, so this is an impressive personal accomplishment."

2. "IT’S 5:30 IN THE MORNING. It’s like a ghost campus. With a swanky coach bus in the parking lot."

3. "It hasn’t really sunk in that I’m going to New York City. My friends keep asking if I’m excited, and I am, but I have no way of imagining what the mythical place I’ve only seen in pictures and on TV is going to look like. It doesn’t feel real."

4. "I CAN SEE LONG ISLAND SOUND!"

5. "It’s not really very pretty."

6. "Is that the Statue of Liberty???"

7. "Nope."

8. "I’m singing 'Hamilton' in my head because even though we can’t see the show, today is Jonathan Groff's (or better known as Groffsauce's) last day as King George III. And we’ll be walking by the Richard Rogers Theater. OH THE AGONY."

9. "I see a city, IS THIS IT!?"

10. "Nope. It’s Fairfield, Connecticut."

11. "Don’t judge me, okay?"

12. "Apparently, we still have another hour. Oopsies."

13. "People are getting annoyed by my enthusiasm. Oh well."

14. "IS THIS IT!?"

15. "Nope, Stanford."

16. "Sorry."

17. "My friend from Connecticut is giving me such side-eye."

18. "Hey, HEY, HEY, I SEE THE SKYLINE! I may know nothing about geography, but I’d recognize that anywhere!"

19. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have seen my first Broadway billboard. For 'An American In Paris.' Oh, to be able to see a show."

20. "…Entering Manhattan…'History is happenin’ in Manhattan and we just happen to be in the greatest city in the world…' ('Hamilton')"

21. "Honestly, I expected more traffic for a Saturday morning."

22. "We’re being let off at the Met. IT’S HUGE. It’s like a large, central building and then wings on either side that just continue for, like, a mile. That’s a lot of art."

23. "Activate Plan B: it’s going to rain in the afternoon, so we’ve decided to do the walking first and explore Rockefeller Center and Times Square in the morning. Thirty-three blocks isn’t that far, right?"

24. "Yes, yes it is."

25. "But we’re at 30 Rock! Really, I just want the NBC store."

26. "I got stuck in the revolving door."

27. "It’s really dark in this building."

28. "But the gift shop is so big and has merchandise from so many shows: "The Office," "Friends," "Good Morning America," "SNL," "The Voice," etc.

29. "Now, to Times Square."

30. "It simultaneously looks exactly the same as on TV and also totally different. That’s the only way I can describe it."

31. "I could disappear forever in the Disney store. I want to be a little kid again so I can participate in the 'Star Wars' demonstration (BB-8 is adorable)."

32. "I can see where the 'Lion King' is! I saw the show in Disney World when I was really young, but my memory of it has been taped over with the 'Lion King' scene from 'Shrek the Musical.'"

33. "And now, folks, if you’ll look to your right, you’ll see where 'Matilda' is currently playing (at the Shubert Theater)."

34. "Across the street, we have 'Les Miserables' at the Imperial. Except not for long, because the last show is in September!"

35. "Fun fact, apparently you can’t go through the Imperial Theater to get to the other side. You have to go around the block. In case you were wondering."

36. "And now. The coup de grâce, THE RICHARD ROGERS THEATER. Where the greatest man alive, Lin-Manuel Miranda, puts on the greatest show to date. 'Hamilton.' The stage door opened a couple times, and each time I was ready to drop dead if it was Lin, or Groffsauce, or anybody in the show, really. I was torn between dropping dead or kissing the ground they walked on. Could’ve gone either way."

36a. "Yes, my friends and I all took pictures in front of it. Don’t judge."

36b. "Yes, my friends and I copied the silhouettes on the doors. The very same doors the amazing actors used to come out for 'Ham4Ham' shows before they went digital."

36c. "Yes, it was amazing."

37. "We now come across the Majestic Theater (so many theaters, so little time), which really is majestic, and the home of my favorite show (not that I’ve ever been able to see it, of course), the 'Phantom of the Opera.'"

37a. "Fun fact: the next morning, I tweeted a photo of me in front of a really cool mosaic of different Phantom pictures and said how I wanted to see the show. I tagged the show’s Twitter account in it, because I was expressing my feelings with the help of some song lyrics (and why not?)."

37b. "Fun fact continued: THEY RETWEETED IT. And I was so happy, over the moon to be precise, and then it. Got. Better."

37c. "Fun fact continued (3): Because someone Tweeted back to me from the show’s account and QUOTED BACK AT ME. I can die happy."

38. "It’s about 12:30 and we’ve got a pretty hungry squad, so we go to Bubba Gump’s, which is a "Forrest Gump" lover’s dream. That movie is one of the very few films my entire family can sit through together, and so it is extremely fun to make them all jealous. And before you ask: yes, I did eat shrimp at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company."

39. "Time to go back to the Met. *Deadpan* I’m so excited to walk thirty-three blocks again. As it starts sprinkling."

40. "Why is everybody wearing a kilt? I really hope they’ve decided to modernize by wearing underwear."

41. "*Gust of wind* Oh, no, they’re traditional as ever."

42. "Why do I hear bagpipes?"

43. "WHY IS THE LOCK NESS MONSTER WALKING DOWN FIFTH AVENUE??"

44. "Happy Tartan Day, apparently."

45. "And now it’s raining. Super. Again, thirty-three blocks is far. It’s very far."

46. "However, we aren't the only drenched rats around. A couple wanted to take their wedding photos in Central Park. Poor souls."

47. "There’s not enough time to go in the Met? Are you serious???"

48. "I guess the gift shop is a close second."

49. "My now-empty wallet concurs."

50. "Wait, the bus is outside?"

51. "B-b-b-b-ut…we just got here!"

52." I’ll have to come back."

53. " Easier said than done, I know. I’ll have to enlist the help of my mother."

54. "We’ll actually see a show and go inside more than just the Met’s gift shop."

55. "Yeah, okay, cool."

56. "See ya soon, NYC!"