In a shocking turn of events, Running through History students actually learned about history and experienced European culture for the first time ever.

“When we were in the airport in June before our flight took off, we all discussed our reasons for taking the course,” explained senior Mary Elizabeth Smith. “I was going because I needed a senior prom date and everyone always says RTH is the best place to find a boyfriend, a lot of the cross country boys were going because they needed to run 100 miles a week for the team and the weather is cooler in Europe, a lot of girls were going because they wanted cool pictures for Instagram, and then some people were going because they wanted to be part of inside jokes.”

“I didn’t really want to go on RTH at first,” said senior John Henry DuPont, “since everything I could ever want is right here within I-285 and I didn’t want to miss any time at my place at Lake Burton, but my parents were trying to force me to get a summer job, so I decided to go. At least I’ll be able to go to Lake Burton when I get back, and then the guys and I are all going down to Sea Island in August. I might go to Seaside before school starts, too.”

“We all agreed that the history and European culture would be the worst part, and thought we’d have to grin it and bear it, like we did with the spring meetings and research paper,” added senior Amelia Vanderbilt while adjusting the level of the VSCOcam C1 filter on a picture of her squad in front of Stonehenge to post to Instagram with a #tbt caption. “We made a pact to make the trip as close to ‘Buckhead in Europe’ as we could by wearing tennis shoes everywhere, screeching loudly in English, and attempting to avoid as much authentic food as possible.”

While the group was successful with regard to their goal during the first few days of the trip, as they consumed only American snack food, refused to learn any words in the local language, and spent the runs discussing the most attractive Westminster, Lovett, and Pace students, an alarming phenomenon began to occur.

“We were at some museum,” said senior Parker Campbell, “and I started becoming interested in the history. I asked Tribble a question, and then a whole group of us got into an intellectual discussion on the Marshall Plan.  It felt like everything we learned in AP Euro was coming to life, and I suddenly felt a profound sense of awe and wonder of the history all around us. I didn’t tell my friends, of course, but then I realized that they felt the same way!”

“It’s weird, history is actually really interesting and Europe is actually as cool as Buckhead even though there’s not a Houston’s or Waffle House,” said senior Emmett van Meer. “It was kinda annoying, though, because for the first time ever I felt sorta embarrassed to be a tourist.”

“We all tried to deny it at first, but it was clear everyone was actually becoming interested in Europe,” said senior Muffy Hastings. “By the time we reached Italy, we had stopped focusing so much on posing for photos every second and then posting them on our special RTH Instagrams four times a day and more on gaining an appreciation for the beautiful history and culture. Michelangelo’s David is actually pretty dope, and a lot of neat stuff happened in Italy. Like did you know it was in World War Two? I had no idea.”

“The Matterhorn was super fun,” said senior big man on campus Glenn Goings. “It’s like Stone Mountain with snow, and climbing it was a really awesome glute workout.”

The trip participants unanimously decided to not reveal their love of the academic side of the trip once they returned.

“I’ve decided to pursue a PhD in European history and impart my newfound love of European culture onto the next generation,” said senior Skip Oliver. “RTH was a superb academic experience. Of course, I can’t tell that to my other friends or they’ll think I’m some kind of nerd, so I’m just going to tell them that I’m pretty sure Bryn Banks and I are a thing now.”