Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of three posts from Lexi, our summer intern here in the Alumni Communications office, about her experiences as a new-to-Baltimore student.

In my last post, I described how different the driving conditions in Baltimore are from rural Delaware. Multiple lane highways, aggressive drivers, lots of honking, and mis-informed GPSes always created interesting adventures.

But did you know that in Delaware, a lot of high schools don’t require you to learn how to parallel park during driver’s ed? Well, Milford High School didn’t at least. We just had to be able to park between the lines, navigate the bumps of the backroads, and not panic when passing the chicken trucks or tractors on the highway. The horrors of parallel parking didn’t hit me until college, as I had never driven in any type of city conditions, let alone tried to park sideways in between two cars that were worth more than my entire college education.

My first “lesson” came when I had to go to a museum for an art class. There was a definite trend with my art class excursions causing me more trouble than they were worth. I had to go to the Walters Art Museum in Mount Vernon. I knew I’d only be there for about an hour, and there was no way I was going to pay for the parking garages in Baltimore, so street parking was my only option. After circling the area and managing to go down every one-way street there was in
Mount Vernon, I found a spot. It was a
parallel spot, and on the left side. I was ready.

I stopped my car, put on my blinker, and then panicked. I had never parallel parked before, let alone parked on the left side of the street. Thank goodness there wasn’t any traffic. I gently tapped my accelerator to back up, but I had turned the wheel too far. I had turned my car in a little arch in the middle of the street. I pulled up next to the compact car in front of me, and tried again. This time, I managed to get almost all the way into the spot, but didn’t turn the wheel enough, and again sat almost in the middle of the street. Third time’s the charm, right? Mirror to mirror, I backed my car into the spot, one inch at a time. But this time, I had it. I could feel it. My car glided into the spot with no problems, I straightened it out, put it in park, and screamed.

I had never been more proud of myself in my life (OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I was very happy). I began congratulating myself, turned up the radio, sang along a little bit to Train’s “Hey Soul Sister,” and then realized my windows were down and people were staring. Blushing and laughing, I calmly got out of the car and went to pay for my spot. I was still so excited and embarrassed that I couldn’t get money out of my wallet. But, I thought, you just parallel parked all by yourself.

When I got back to my dorm, I told one of my friends, who then laughed at me, and made me go back outside and learn how to parallel park. While he sat next to me, his roommate sat in the back, and they both took turns shouting directions at me as I tried to recreate my parking skills in the back road next to Potomac Hall. Cars drove by, we all kept yelling, people stared, and we all got frustrated. But, in the end, I had learned how to parallel park. By the time we were finished, I couldn’t help but think, When I go home for the summer, I’m going to forget how to do all of this.

-Lexi Coon

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of three posts from Lexi, our summer intern here in the Alumni Communications office. She’ll be sharing some of her stories and experiences at UMBC over the coming weeks.

Let me introduce myself. Hi, I’m Lexi.
I’m a 21 year old from Camden, Delaware,
where nothing exciting ever really happens, except for a few weekends each year. Slowly but surely, events like NASCAR and the Firefly Music Festival are putting the little old diamond state on the map, and less and less people ask me which state Delaware is in.

I’ll give you a little background info about myself. I’m an only child, sans the mythical only-child syndrome, and grew up with a veterinarian for a dad and the best mom a girl could ever ask for. My shoes of choice are barn boots, and I have a caught more than a few snakes in my time. My home is more or less a farm. Or a zoo. It just depends on the day. We have five dogs, two cats, a pond full of fish, honeybees, three horses, and a donkey, give or take a wandering raccoon or opossum.

While we don’t actually harvest crops or breed cattle, my home used to be in the agricultural heart of Delaware. Less than a mile away is a massive potato farm. Turn left from there, and you’re surrounded by the biggest stalks of corn you could possibly imagine. Sure, there’s still a pretty big population near us, and we don’t live on a dirt road, but on the right day it’s as if you’re isolated from the hustle and bustle cities are known for. But that’s home to me. So for me, Baltimore was a little bit of an eye-opener.

I came to UMBC not really understanding how close I was to the city. As a freshman, I didn’t have a car, so I relied on upperclassmen friends to take me wherever I needed to go. Come sophomore year when I had my own car, I had no idea where anything was. I never bothered to learn the back roads or highways, because I never needed to know. I used my phone’s GPS to get me to the Arbutus Wal-Mart. I tried to get to an art store for a class, and my lack of knowledge about traffic and the number of different highways there are turned a 20-minute trip turned into a two-hour adventure.

Delaware has one, two-lane highway without stoplights. Route one runs north to south through the state and can take you wherever it is you need to go. Just to get to the art store I had to take four different highways. I learned how to merge really quickly. I also learned that my GPS doesn’t work well in cities. After being told to turn right, go straight and then turn left, and go through a hotel lobby, all while sitting at the same traffic light for five minutes, I finally caved and pulled out the map I stash in my car to find the best back roads. With much honking, yelling, and arm waving, I somehow cut across three lanes to get where I needed to go. Drivers in Baltimore seemed much more uptight than Delawareans. But, then again, I probably deserved all the dirty looks.

Besides the minor directional issues, my trip to the art store was relatively uneventful until I had to park (parallel park, at that). That’s probably a story left for a better time, though.

-Lexi Coon

Name: Lexi Coon
Job Title: A&D Communications Intern
Focus Area: Writing for the UMBC Giving and Alumni Blogs
Years at UMBC: 3
Grad year (if alum): hopefully fall of 2015!

Q: Where are you from originally?

I was born in Manhattan, KS, and lived there for about 2 years (not that I remember any of it). As far as I’m concerned, I’m a born and raised Delawarean.

Q: What do you love most about UMBC?

I really enjoy how many people are willing to help you succeed in whatever it is you want to do. Everyone here really does want to know how you are doing and if there is a way they can help you. Also the squirrels are really entertaining.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about your job?

I’d have to say my favorite thing about working for Alumni Relations is the people I work with. I can come in really tired and grumpy, but by the end of the day they have me laughing and smiling. There’s a lot of camaraderie and energy around here.

Q: Have you ever done anything crazy or out of the ordinary?

Well since I’m a swimmer, I have a thing for water. My dad and I both became certified scuba divers when I was ten, and a few years later we got to dive in the Epcot Aquarium in Disney! It was unbelievable. Also, this past year when I went home for Christmas, two of my friends and I went surfing on the Eve of Christmas Eve just because we could. The water temperature was about 44 degrees, but it was totally worth it.

Q: If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go?

I can’t pick just one. I have a running list of where I want to go, from all over Europe to the Galapagos Islands. I’m very much a beach girl, so any place that has sunshine, sand, and cool animals and culture always appeals to me.

Stephen M. Marz MA ’94, history, is the new director of the Delaware Public Archives. A certified archivist, Stephen earned his undergraduate degree from Monmouth University, and later an MSW from the University of Maryland. He has served as Deputy Director of the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs for Delaware for the last five years.

Read the full story here.