No one wants to remember their middle school days, but I have an appreciation for my middle school, because it was where I met the majority of my best friends. I was never a super social kid, and I had friends here and there, but I would say that I never had a core group of friends until middle school. I met two of my best friends from English class when the teacher just assigned us seats next to each other. After we graduated, we actually went back and thanked her for helping us meet by seating us next to each other, but she wasn’t there when we went. I don’t know if we would have ever been as close as we are now if it weren’t for her or middle school though.

Super Cao Nguyen is an Asian supermarket in the Oklahoma City Asian district. I still go to this place now when I’m in the city, but it’s special to me because my cousin, sister, and I would play around in the building next to it that was still a part of the supermarket. While this building was still considered Super Cao Nguyen, it had other little businesses in it, including a cafe, boba shop, and a place where Asian style sculptures were stored and sold. We would just hang out here while our parents were on the supermarket side. We played tag in the hallway and stairs that it had, since it was always empty, and carved our names into one of the cafe tables, which I’m pretty sure is still there. This was a regular weekly activity because going to the supermarket for groceries was a weekly thing, so we spent a lot of time here. Aside from us playing in the non-supermarket side of the building, we also played with the balls in the front of the building. We used to climb on top of them as kids, and our parents would get mad at us since it was so close to the street.

Toys R Us is important to me, because my dad, sister, and I used to spend all day here. It was like a day at the park for us. I don’t remember us ever buying any of our toys from Toys R Us, but we would just hang out there and play with the toys that weren’t in boxes. I specifically remember a Thomas the Train train set that we spent hours playing with. I guess it is sort of an odd place to go hang out at, but we did it so often, and we really enjoyed it. At the front of the store, near the checkout area, they always had ice cream, so we would get that every time we went and ate it outside on a bench. It was always a fun time, and I was very sad when I heard that Toys R Us was closing, since it was such a big part of my childhood.

I can’t say I was ever one of those kids that hung out with their friends at the mall like a lot of other people could; however, this building is important to me, because I got one of my first jobs at a retail store here. Originally, when I first started working at the mall, I dreaded going to work since parking was sometimes difficult to find and the mall was always so packed, but as I kept working and bonding with my coworkers, I actually started to love coming to work (which can be weird to say because almost everyone hates retail). I ended up meeting one of my best friends here and it really shaped me into who I am today. As for the architecture of the building itself, I would say it’s a lot nicer than Quail Springs and Sooner Mall.

Built in 1969 by architects Dow Gumerson and Donald McCormick using a newer method of pouring concrete and sandblasting, the materials had given the well-known look of the Physical Science Center. Also known as the “Waring Blender”, the building had never been one of the favorable buildings on campus even by faculty because of the extensive problems it has had. It includes 28 classes and lecture rooms, as well as 54 research and class laboratories that were connected with the Chemistry building. This 5.5-million-dollar project originally included connective buildings that would follow down Elm Street towards Brooks though was cut short when lack of money and resources occurred. 

My encounter with this was a negative experience because the one class that I despised and failed was chemistry and it took place in this building. Part of the experience was that most freshman take classes in the building but live on the other side of campus, thus having to walk from one side to the other was brutal in the summer heat. That heat lasted until November and there was no substantial air conditioning most of the time within the building. There were tiny elevators that took forever to run up and down so the students were expected to walk up the twelve flights of stairs that seemed to be narrower than any staircase known to man. You would get bumped by other sweaty freshman going up and down the stairs. The classrooms were tiny in order to fit more into the building schematics. I have yet to encounter a student that enjoys being in the Physical Science Center even after being a student here for four years, even President Cross called it the “Devil Tower”!