By Abby Anastasio
When the students going on the 2017 Berklee Nashville Trip boarded the bus in Boston, none of us anticipated that our 25-hour journey would include a breakdown and subsequent pit stop at a secluded Waffle House franchise in the small town of Lexington, VA. Even more surprised than all of us were the employees at that location, who were given no warning that 120 hungry, tired college students were about to touch down and make their day interesting. Within minutes, the tiny restaurant filled with deafening chatter, one student had queued up “All Star” by Smash Mouth on the jukebox, and the hashbrowns were flying from the first order until the bus was finally fixed. As funny as it is to look back on all of us invading that Waffle House, the week in Nashville that followed was far less stressfully spontaneous. Having gone on the trip the year prior, I had a vague idea of what I was getting into, but this trip proved to be a very fresh experience in many ways.