As I slowly walked to the fogged up glass doors of the Factory at Wake Forest, I vaguely spotted a long wide hallway with what it seemed like never ending ceilings with grey pipes visible at the very top. The floors had not changed one bit, still concrete with a waxed finished that looked so bright that you could almost see your reflection. As I took a few more steps, I felt the floor beneath my feet at an angle, like I was going up a very short ramp.

I took a right turn into a giant opening in the wall where the ice rink was located. The cheap looking blue and black rubber flooring had been replaced with new sleek black floors. The walls had been painted a lovely light blue color all the way up to the top of the high ceilings. The few banners on the walls before had been accompanied by at least double the number. There were both digital banners and fabric banners. The skate rental had been upgraded with all new quality skates, with new stuffed full of skates. There was a large, grey spinning rack that was controlled by a single computer which was much more convenient than stressing a worker out by searching all over the small room for skates. The snack bar had at least triple the amount of options with foods snacks, and some that I had never seen in my life. There were still two sheets of ice on either side of me, but new colorful and crazy lights had been installed in the ceilings. The lights were dizzying, as the variety of colors swirled all around ice that was as smooth as a single piece of paper. The air inside brushed my face and sent a chilling feeling from my head all the way down to my toes, as if you had just stepped out of your house on a freezing cold January morning. After searching around the rink, I decided to go check out the rest of the complex.

Down the ginormous hallway and to the right was my favorite restaurant called Ziggy’s Pizza. The bright signature red Ziggy’s sign remained the same, but the interior had evolved from a little Italian Pizzeria, to a large sports bar with synchronized televisions surrounding me. The comforting smell of pizza greeted me as I walked further back towards the kitchen. I spotted large grey stones as they outlined the opening in the wall where you could watch the chefs as they cooked your five star meals. Conveyer belts replaced the tables in the kitchen, new and improved devices that I had never seen before sat out along the tight walls in the kitchen. I could see the exact spot where a booth used to be set up to the right, but now there was a giant wall sized TV in its place.  where I would always sit with my friends if our parents were running late or forgot about us while we practiced. The new building was much improved and modernized, but it was still obvious that I was in the same spot 200 years later.