As I stayed in my room doing homework or at least trying to focus on it because it seemed as if anything in the world would have been better than HW at that point. I decided that I was fed up with the ratio and having all this school work so I decided to tour the Daytona area with a friend down the hallway. We set out on the journey to what would be an unforgettable night. As we walked to the end of the block we looked around and discussed the city of Daytona in general and the absence of a transit system as I was use to in NYC city and we decided after we were done walking around we would go to K-Mart. We arrived at our first destination which was Daytona Beach State College (DBS) which was a ghost town. Apart from the 2 or 3 cars that drove around the campus to drop someone off or the campus security go cart there was absolutely no one on the campus. There was a guy blowing leaves and gardening but apart from that the campus was absolutely barren. We walked and saw a line of go-karts just begging us to take one of them for a ride but after considering some things we decided against the lure of these go carts all parked up nicely next to this building. After walking around Daytona State College for another couple of minutes we decided to call it a night and go to K-mart like we planned earlier but as we turned on our path back to Embry-Riddle (ERAU) you we heard a tantalizing sound behind us. It was the sound of drums or a band so from this sound we thought instruments+band=chicks so we headed in the directions of the drums after checking the DBS campus map we noticed there was a huge cemetery right across the street, which we decided avoid at all cost! We walked on the DBS campus and looked in windows to see if the sound came from on campus of course it didn't so then we decided that the music was a figment of our imaginations. We set back on our course to ERAU and there it was again the tantalizing sound of a marching band in the opposite direction so wee ser course in that direction and came to the road between the cemetery and DBS. My friend was now convinced it was some sort of spirit from the cemetery trying to lure us in so we both decided once again to go back to ERAU. Not even a second after turning around the sound began to play again so I decided I was not turning back this time especially since we realized the sound was not coming from the cemetery but from somewhere behind hit it a few blocks maybe even a mile or so away. We walked for about 15minutes when we came across a little shopping cent with stores like Family Dollar, Kryspy Kreme, a Chinese Buffet and many more stores. Disappointed after walking pass all these stores which were closed from about 9 o'clock (something you'd never see in NY) my friend decided that the night was a lost cause and he refused to go any further but across the street a little while up the block there was a green sign with white writing on it. The sign caught my eyes though I couldn't make out what it was saying but I definitely knew I had to read it but on the other hand my friend was making a good argument. As I decide if I was going to turn back or read the sign a traffic truck drives by with the arrows that points traffic out of a certain lane and it stops with its arrow right next to this sign, as if it was a message to me the arrow on this truck lights up and begin to point at the green sign that had been plaguing my mind as I tried to make a decision on going back to ERAU. After seeing this, my mind was made up I went to read the sign and it read "Bethune Cookman Universityà". I told my friend but he still wanted to go back to campus so I decided I would ask one of the construction guys how far the school was and if it was really far we would turn back around. We asked the worker who said the school was at the next stop light which we could see from where we were standing so we set off on the third leg of our journey. To solidify that we were meant to take this journey a sign in front of a church read "Where god guides he provides" let me know we were on track and not only was the school not at the next stop light the area began to change. We walked and we saw broken down houses, junked cars, we saw people up ahead as well. As we got closer we realized these people were crack heads huddled up in corners running around the streets and going into abandoned buildings. The area was just really run down and in bad condition so I decide to get in contact with someone who could then transfer me over to my RA to let him know we had wondered off into this part of town in case anything happened. We continued walking saw people on corners drinking hanging out in front of the corner store (typical things in NYC) and then we came across a sign that read Bethune Cookman University. Once on the campus we saw a humongous group of girls standing out in the street talking. We were like to kids in a toy store everywhere we looked there was something we wanted and we were just frozen in one spot just looking around at all the girls that were around. We were like mister kool aid on the street corner with pasted on smile and the urge to say "OOOO YEEEEEAAAAA". It was just too many girls to handle in one night we were lost for words after walking around the campus and seeing the amazing opportunities it had to offer we were shell shocked. So we decide before one of us had a heart attack we would just go back to campus and game plan for the next to we went back. So we called a cab who ironically the cab driver happened to be an alumni of the school gave us the whole run down of how BCU operated. I brought a weird yet potential filled night to an end by wishing my friends as well as my RA good bye cause they would never see me again with a school like that so near by.
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