Sophomore Brennon Cope was having a relaxing afternoon during the summer when he turned to look at his phone. A text from his friend’s mother left him puzzled.

“GET READY. GET SET. LET’S GO,” it began.

Puzzled by the beginning of the message, Cope read on.

“MYSTERY TRIP is planned I hope you know.

CLUES will come so you can plan

WHAT to pack and load in the van.

Be ready Monday Morning, August 10, at 8:30.”

Cope and four of his friends were about to embark on a trip. However, they didn’t know where they were going or what they would be doing.

“[I was] very excited because I had never done anything like this before,” Cope said. “[It was] really interesting to not know where we were going on the trip because it made it more of an adventure. It was almost like going to an untraveled land.”

Sophomore Matt Prieskorn’s mother, Martha, planned the trip for the group, only sending texts to give clues about the journey. Curious about where the trip might take them, Cope searched the next text for clue.

“CLUE #2: Geronimo was an Indian leader from southwest Texas.”

“The text mostly seemed pretty irrelevant at the beginning, but it did say in the description something about the southwest,” Cope said, “so I assumed that’s the direction we would be headed.”

During the car ride, Martha Prieskorn gave the boys additional clues.

“My clue was ‘der stuka,” Cope said. “The first thing that came into my head was that it sounded German. It was actually Caleb [Snow] to point out that the word stuka referred to a type of airplane that was used during World War 2.”

For the first stop of the mystery trip, they went to Hurricane Harbor in Dallas. They all said that their favorite ride was Sea Wolf, and they really enjoyed the ride Geronimo too.

“I was really excited that we went to a waterpark since it was really hot outside, and I got to hang out with my friends,” sophomore Matt Prieskorn said. “My favorite part of the waterpark was having flash passes because we wouldn’t have been able to experience as much as we did otherwise. We got to make reservations for the slides so we didn’t have to wait in line. It was definitely worth the purchase.”

They woke up that Tuesday with no knowledge of where they would be going next, but soon realized that they would be having lunch with an important individual.

“We went to meet the former CFO of Cici’s Pizza. The advice he gave was the best part about meeting him,” sophomore Caleb Snow said. “He inspired me to work harder because that is what America is built on.”

Anderson told the group that time management was an enormous part of his success. He would work 50 hours a week when everyone else was working 40.

“This was inspiring because if he was able to do it and get a great amount of success, then why couldn’t I?” Snow said.

The group also visited Bush Library at Southern Methodist University where they got to make decisions on current events.

“In all, I am very grateful for the experience that was given to me to grow closer to my already irreplaceable friends,” Cope said.