I’m not usually a spontaneous person. I’m a planner. I’m an organizer. I think logically and exhaust all the options before making a decision.

Which is why I was surprised to find myself in a beer-stenched green t-shirt with a shamrock necklace, on a train to New York to see the Villanova Wildcats play in the Big East Championship.

Let’s back up.

I woke up on Saturday March 14th with plans to go to the Philly Bar Crawl with my roomies. It was rainy, but that didn’t deter us from wearing obnoxious amounts of green and drinking a little too much beer. After a few hours, post hamburgers and chicken fingers, my roomies and I decided to head back to 30th. On our walk, we ran into my friend Tony. Naturally we all started to discuss our plans to watch the Big East Championship because what else really matters? Cats over everything.

“Wait, let’s go to New York.”

That was the idea that popped into Tony’s drunken head. That was the suggestion that I laughed off. That was the thought that became the most spontaneous decision I’ve ever made.

“No Tony, we can’t go. We’ll never make it.”

“NO. Kasia. Let’s go to New York. We can get on Amtrak at 30th. Oh my god, we’re going. We’re going to the Big East Championship, we have to go, it’s happening.”

“Tony, no we can’t, that’s ridiculous, it’s going to be so expensive…”

“SAY YES TO SENIOR YEAR. SAY YES.”

Before I knew it, Tony was calling Ed (his father) to ask if he would front our Amtrak tickets and I was googling any way to score last minute tickets to the game. In the rain, credit card clutched in my hand, I walked the streets of Philly and pressed “Purchase” for two tickets in section 110, row 22 for the Big East Championship.

And then somehow, our spontaneity turned into things effortlessly falling into place.

At 3:45pm, we picked up our Amtrak tickets and at 4:10pm we walked onto the train. We grabbed Starbucks (and water) on 35th street and bought a phone charger for my 12% alive phone at KMart. We waltzed into a restaurant full of Villanova fans (including a beloved Blue Key alum) and there was an outlet literally next to our table so I could bring my phone back to life and capture the night. Our tickets were waiting for us at will call and we ran into Will D. Cat, our mascot, and I got my first picture ever with him. Our seats were superb and we ended up next to a retired Villanova basketball player who played during the ’51-52 season and said “what a lovely ball game it was” at the end.

We won the championship. And I was there with one of my best friends.

I’m not usually as spontaneous person. But in the moment where responsible Kasia wanted to deny Tony’s crazy request, I thought about my future kids. And I wanted to be able to tell them a crazy story. So in that moment, I decided to truly live saying yes to senior year. And it was worth every single second.

Here’s to the best (drunken)/spontaneous decision of my life & witnessing the Cats cutting down that championship net.