The Unfortunate Events of Brenna: My Washington DC experience

By Brenna Eller

Opinion Page Editor

So this past weekend I went to Las Vegas with my best friend to go to a Marine Ball. As I was there, I couldn’t help but think of the time I went to Washington D.C. my junior year of high school because that was the last time we had flown together.

The history teacher at Little River, Mr. Keith Rains, takes students every year to Washington D.C. during the summer with a group from surrounding areas. I’m not sure how he has gone time and time again, but I think I’m good with not going for a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast on the trip and loved the memorials, but since I am an Eller, and my two older sisters had been forgetful the years they went to Washington, I was just bound to forget something too.

That being said, my oldest sister wandered away from the group a lot when she went, scaring Mr. Rains quite a bit, and my other sister left her phone under a bench on Capitol Hill. Luckily there was a guy in her group who was training for a marathon, so he ran back and got the phone for her.

Me being the most irresponsible, unlucky, and clumsiest of the Ellers, just had to one-up them. I left much more than a cell phone. In fact, I didn’t lose my cell phone of all things.

It was the first day of the trip, and I had to get up at 5:30 a.m. so we could get to the airport on time. My sister had informed Mr. Rains that I am way worse than they were and that he needed to keep an eye on me.

When we got to D.C., I went to get my suitcase from the baggage claim. There were so many people, I felt claustrophobic. I tried to squeeze myself into the crowd and accidently bumped into an older lady. I said, “Sorry, excuse me.” She just looked at me like I slapper her in the face or something and shoved me back. So, I just waited until people cleared out to get my bag and moved onto the metro platform.

One of the leaders of our group told us to wait, because the metro that pulled up wasn’t the right one. so I decided to take my backpack that I had been lugging around off. Then the same leader said, “Nevermind, this is us, everyone get on!” So I grabbed my suitcase and got on so I wouldn’t miss it.

It had just started to rain when we got to our stop near the hotel we were staying at. One of the people in our group asked me if she could use my umbrella that I was so happy I brought before.

I said,” Sure!” As I reached behind me, I already knew the inevitable. It was like my heart dropped not only to my stomach, but to my feet.

I started having a mini panic attack and laughed hysterically. I just could not believe I would lose my backpack that had my camera in it, my purse, money, social security card, and umbrella.

I ran to Mr. Rains and he could tell by the horrified look on my face that I had lost something. He said, “What was it?” and I told him where I last saw it. It was at the airport metro platform.

So, we left our group and ran to catch a metro going back to the airport. We finally found the right one and hopped on. When we got to the platform, it was a ghost town. There were zero security guards in sight. I thought I was losing my mind. I was so scared. Finally, we got to a booth where four or five security guards were standing bent over rummaging through something.

Mr. Rains asked if they had found a blue bag with elephants on it and one lady looked at me and said, “What’s your name?” I answered her and she looked at an I.D, then said, “It’s her.” I was just thinking to myself, Oh crap! I’m in a lot of trouble, they think I’m a bomb terrorist, I can’t be seen in this place ever again.

Then I had to sign a paper that stated that everything I had was in the bag. I was so relieved I think I may have teared up a bit. As we were getting to the hotel area, it started to just downpour.

So I got out my umbrella and we shared it walking to the hotel. As I was approaching the rest of our group, someone had started a slow clap and all of a sudden everyone was slow clapping for me. I was so embarrassed I couldn’t even look at anyone.

On the bright side, I took a lot of great pictures and the rest of the week went smoothly even though I had people asking me if I had my bag everyday.

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