Five years ago on the day before spring break, the eighth-grade athletics classes rented out charter buses, and with the permission of the principal, skipped school to drive to Dallas and take a tour of the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium. And this year, we did it again.

First things first, of course: the details were sorted out. Fees were collected, buses were rented, tours were booked. Each kid had to pay at least $45 in order to go on the trip in order to supplement the costs for the different requirements. On the day of the trip, kids had to arrive at the school at seven A.M., the day after a track meet at Westwood versus Chisholm Trail, Grisham, and Pearson Ranch, packed with a lunch, money, and whatever else they may have wanted to take with them. But it was worth the effort.

When the students arrived at the stadium, they took a giant group photo in front of the stadium next to the Tom Landry statue. After that, they were greeted by three different tour guides and split into groups by the bus that they took. Inside the stadium, they were taken to see everything that there is. They got to see the world-class paintings and sculptures in the back room bought by the owner of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones; they sat in the VIP boxes and were showed a video on a $100 million 40 foot by 20 foot retractable TV; they were able to walk into both the cheerleader and team locker rooms. But the main event: an hour of time to play on the same field as Ezekiel Elliot, Sean Lee, and the rest of the Cowboys.

“It was kind of crazy. I watch the Cowboys play games on the field during the season, and now I’m the one playing games in the stadium. It was really cool because the field was so nice and the stadium was so big, it was like we were players for such a famous team,” Matt Gula (8) said.