In my youth, a field trip to Science Museum Oklahoma née Omniplex felt frenetic. When we arrived, the whole class sat on the steps inside the entrance of the building, champing at the bit. The minute the teacher finished the headcount and let us loose, it was every kid for themself.
Each exhibit had information, but I wasn’t there to read it. I was there to do the activity, and then sprint to the next one, occasionally yelling at my classmates to hurry up because it was my turn. I spent the day running around the museum, touching any and everything, only stopping for lunch.
Having returned as an adult with my own child, I can say that feeling of frenetic energy is still there. But it wasn’t within me, so much as an aura emitted by my toddler as I pitifully tried to keep up with him and his older cousins on Labor Day.
We entered as a big group as soon as the museum opened—cousins, aunts, uncles, and a grandmother—and functionally kept moving until my kid threatened to pass out and nap in the middle of the place around 11:30 a.m.
The whole time I found myself excited to see what’s next, trying to help my kid reach different exhibits, or showing him how something worked. This was mostly met with excitement, though occasionally, he was more enthralled with a nearby trashcan than the science in front of him. Toddlers are weird, and my kid loves to touch a trashcan because he knows his dad and I will both say “NO DO NOT TOUCH THAT YUCKY YUCKY NO!”