It was a once in a lifetime opportunity gone wrong.

Offered tickets on the floor, Julianna King ‘25 and Kayle Brody ‘25 were excited to see the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. There were only two of these special tickets, so that meant that the girls would have to go into the city by themselves. Their parents explained the trains, directions, and information that the two girls needed for this experience to be a success. Little did they know what madness the night of March 16 would bring….

“Stay together, figure out your platform that your train is going to be at, arrive ten minutes before the train is supposed to depart. Are you sure your mother said she was okay with this?” Brody’s dad asked her as she was preparing to leave.

King and Brody were certain that they could do it. The girls made sure they had their tickets, phones, and additional money for the trip. They said goodbye to their parents, and stood at the platform in the cold, anxiously awaiting their train.

“Trains came through, but none of them were ours. We checked and double-checked and triple-checked to make sure we had the right platform, the right time, and the right trains. We could even track the train from our phones, but the time kept creeping up as our train became increasingly delayed,” Julianna King shared.

From early, to on time, to late, the girls became anxious, calling their parents to come back to pick them up. After much debate, they decided that these tickets were too good to pass up. It did not matter if they were late, as long as they got to enjoy even a little of the experience. Their train eventually came, and their moms waved them on, all laughing that it all worked out. They laughed too early, as this was just the beginning of their troubles.

“When we got off the train, we followed everyone up an escalator, only to find ourselves in a huge area that we were not prepared for. Our directions suddenly didn’t make sense, but since we were alone, we didn’t want to show how lost we really were,” Kayle Brody explained.

The girls walked the length of the room, trying to play off their confusion. As King was about to ask a security guard where they needed to go, Brody saw a “Madison Square Garden” sign above the guard’s head. The girls hurried along, following consecutive signs until they made it into the building. They thought they were in the home stretch– the doors leading up to the game were right in front of them!

“We were walking up to the doors to where we could get our tickets scanned and as I attempted to pull up the tickets, they wouldn’t load. I checked them at home and then again once we were on the train, but they seemed to have stopped just when we needed them,” King said, recalling another unfortunate event.

The clock ticked away as they received help in correcting the issue with their tickets, learning that it had been a problem throughout the night. There were more difficulties as they tried to access the tickets that had been gifted and emailed across many different accounts before arriving in their possession.

“After the tickets were sorted out, it all seemed easy. We were pretty late– the end of  halftime– so we followed the signs, found our seats, and thought we could relax!” Brody exclaimed. “Until Julianna and I got yelled at because we were sitting in someone else’s seats!”

At first, Julianna and Kayle thought it was a con– that this person was trying to scam two young  girls out of their rightful seats, but they later learned from a helpful staffer that they had gotten their tickets wrong. This time, an employee offered to show them to their seats. They descended down the stairs, passing row after row, getting closer and closer to the court. Passing the regular bleacher seats, the rows became rows of folding chairs, with more space until they stopped.

“Complimentary noisemakers!” King declared.

Blowing up the balloon-like noisemaker with air, she handed one to Brody. Unlike the people they had encountered a dozen rows up, their new seatmates were helpful, teaching the girls how to use the clappers. Too soon, the game ended and the girls prepared to leave. King suggested that they try to move closer to the court and get closer to the players, but Brody saw the security guards telling others to leave, and they decided that they did not need any more trouble. They traced their steps successfully back to the train station, found their designated train on a board, and all they had to do was wait. 

The train above theirs went on “Standby,” and then to “Boarding,” while a voice called out the designated platform. A short time later, their train flashed to “Standby.” After waiting patiently for their boarding call and ride out of this fun and stressful night, theirs soon disappeared off the board– and they were once again overwhelmed by the immense transit center before them.

“We were too scared to ask strangers where to go, so we began to ask the security officers walking around. Many directed us towards other guards and other places, but we had no idea what they were talking about and which way to go,” Brody shared.

Although there had been constant contact with their parents, they finally decided to call to see what they should do. Exhausted and done with their urban escapade, the girls made plans with their parents. Another missed train later, the girls were in the right place– with the wrong  tickets. 

“We had already bought tickets for the first train we were supposed to go on, so when the conductor came around, we had to buy new tickets. We weren’t really safe until we were safe inside Julianna’s dad’s car,” Brody said.

After several stressful hours filled with many disasters, the girls were finally able to relax and return home.

As a closing comment, King remarked, “And this all happened on a school night!”