Before You Pass You Need to…..

Darius Coleman is a writer for MUSAY who explores cultural topics, the role of museums in society today, and how culture has impacted his life. This is the next installment in a series of blog posts titled, “My MUSAY Moments.”

In Middle School, I went on the worst trip in my entire life

It was a 19-hour drive from my school in Memphis all the way to our beautiful state capitol. It was a coach bus with 50 of the most annoying middle schoolers and a couple of teachers who were severely underpaid. All of us underestimated how tired and frustrated we’d quickly get. 

And we went to a lot of different places, a couple of good museums that I would also throw on this list of great times, and some other places that I felt like I had no reason to go to. By the last day of the trip, I hadn’t slept more than 5 hours in two days and was maybe 20 minutes away from screaming some colorful words at my chaperone before we finally arrived at the Smithsonian. 

This is one of those times when I will tell you something from the bottom of my heart that I mean with full intention and purpose. And it’s not because of me being employed or because this blog post is about museums. It’s because I actually believe this. 

Before you pass, you NEED to go to the Smithsonian once. 

And I mean each and every single one. Not even just the nation Air and Space Museum, which is where this story begins.

What makes the Smithsonian so special to me are the amount of interactive exhibits within the museum for you to do and touch and learn from. Many museums don’t have many tangible things for you to figure out, especially museums about air and space. 

There are so many consoles (that I would say are similar to the arcade consoles you’d find in the back of a CiCi’s or something) that were interactable all throughout the museum.

Being able to walk and stand beside an airplane or helicopter was one of the most interesting things I’ve ever experienced. Especially because at that time, I had never flown in an airplane before. In fact, the highest I’d ever been was really high on a roller coaster at Six Flags (side note, do you know how terrifying it was to be so high that I could see a cornfield I’d never seen before? I thought my life was all over). 

/My experience that day at the Air and Space Museum gave me the same feeling that I had when I was in that planetarium at the Pink Palace but with even more respect. How insane is it that humans can be thousands of feet in the air — and safe? It was a continuation of that feeling of life being bigger than me. Hundreds of people come together every day to just fly ONE plane that’s three hours to a place that’s 19 hours via car. The amount of manpower and hours required to get someone across the country was even more impressive. Thousands of people are moving with one goal: to get you to your sister’s wedding. 

So now I think you know why I am a writer under the MUSAY umbrella -it’s because they have been here for people like me. The ones who care about learning new things and appreciating the things we do have. It’s a joy to not only be able to experience these things under MUSAY, but to find ways to support Museums as we enter new generations of museum goers, dreamers, and artist. MUSAY, in a way, represents everything I want for Museums in the future

This blog will represent more than just a place to talk about random things. It’s a host for the stories and spirit of millions of dreamers, creators, artists, and enjoyers of the arts. A place to get a quick fix of information told to you in a fun, interactive way. 

We hope you enjoy it. And thank you. 

This was my MUSAY Moment._{© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.}

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an App that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed—creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people’s lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.