On April 12th, I was sitting in Bi 150 (Intro to Neuroscience) class when I got a notification that changed everything I was planning on doing that day. Someone messaged my house Discord saying “Young Sheldon is on campus.” A minute later, a picture popped up with Iain Armitage (the actor who plays young Sheldon) behind our very own Caltech Hall. As soon as class ended, I booked it from Chen to Caltech Hall as fast as I could. 

I saw this sign and realized I made it to the right spot. I then realized I wasn’t too late when I saw the following:

At this point, a bunch of excited students were everywhere behind Caltech Hall trying to get a good view.

Some photos from my viewpoints:

Students were everywhere trying to find the best spots to watch the crew film this scene. People were finding different balconies I didn’t know existed, going on floors I had never been on, and finding new ways of accessing unaccessible areas on campus. Some friends and I watched for a bit outside of the windows from the 2nd and 3rd floors of Kerckhoff, but eventually the film crew moved away from sight.

At this point, I was pretty happy. I watched a scene from a show I love being filmed live and had a fun time running around campus with my friends. I was ready to leave the area and go get some lunch. On our walk back, though, we heard that they were taking a break from filming, so we bolted over one last time. Once we made it to the back of all the tents, we were able to meet Young Sheldon himself and got to speak to him for a bit before taking a picture.

While this may not be a typical day at Caltech, it was certainly an exciting one that I will always remember for all of the excitement around campus that day!