Up, Up, and Away We Go!

By Isabella Seman

Waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we loaded our BioBus at 5 a.m. from the McMichael lot. A couple of us started loading all of the bags into the back, getting our workout in for the day. The back of the bus was so packed that if we came to a hard stop some luggage would fall onto the people in the back seats. There were not enough seats for everyone, so Professor Landesberg sat on luggage and held onto the seats for the ride to RDU.

I am currently sitting on the plane, in an exit row all to myself, to Minneapolis before our four hour layover. This quick flight gave me some time to think about the expectations for this trip. It’s funny because my dad asked for our itinerary, BUT everything changes to the point that we make up our plan of action the night before or the day of.  If you are a person that needs a structured plan, this trip is not for you. For a person like me, the unknown is always very exciting. 

There are many factors playing into our experience in Iowa. First, it is going to be COLD! For the students working on campaigns they will be knocking on doors. For the students working as journalists, we’ll be running around place to place. To say the least we brought a lot of hand warmers. 

The second factor that can affect our trip is what’s happening in the news and government. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls for the impeachment trial in the Senate, candidates like Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren will need to be in Washington, D.C. 

Last night, it was reported that Iran fired missiles at U.S. military shelters in Iraq following the death of Iran Leader Soleimani. This is all relevant to our trip because this helps us form the questions we are going to ask the candidates and voters for our stories. There is a chance we will get to work the next Democratic Debate, however if Speaker Pelosi calls the trial it will get pushed back to the day we leave. 

Luckily our flight has live television so we can watch the news and catch up on events we may have missed.

While in Iowa we will not have a day off. We will be working from early mornings to late nights. From what we have heard, our main meal will be breakfast, so we all packed many, many protein bars to get us through the day. 

We will also be meeting up with alum Gary Grumbach, Bernie Sanders’ embed reporter for NBC. He was on this trip last election and gave us some notable advice. 

I am very excited to learn and grow in journalism from some very talented people. Our class has gotten close over the past couple days and we all all very eager to hit the ground running. This experience is like no other and thanks to Elon University for the amazing opportunity, especially as a student-athlete. Most schools wouldn’t allow their athletes to leave for 12 days in off season, and for that I am very grateful.