Our Final Goodbyes

(Left to right) Me, Jun Chen (Cornell University), Danielle Famorcan (University of Chicago), Donna Fang (University of Pennsylvania), Yeon Soo Cho (Brown University)

All of the Ivy League Connection participants met for our orientation today. This is the last time that we will have a group event with all of the 2014 members in the same room. Don sent out multiple emails telling us to come to Pinole Middle School at 6 o'clock so that we can review some last minute details so my mom packed the car and dragged my dad my brother around the corner and made sure we got there early. We pulled up to the school around 5:30 and walked into a small theater with rows of fold up benches and our school flags draped on the walls.

My family and I took a seat near the front and waited for more people to arrive so we could start the meeting. Don started the meeting and shortly after a girl came running a in late. A wave of heads turned to stare at her. She must've not heard Don say that scholarships have been revoked for poor punctuality and how seriously the ILC deals with people who don't follow instructions. After teasing the girl a bit, Don talked to the room about the same things that were said at our tutorial, but I think this time, the speech was for the parents who tend to be left out of the loop. After a few words, we all broke out into group sessions with our cohorts to discuss different details of our trip. Mrs. Thrift gave the parents and students copies of our tentative itinerary which outlined our various hotels, tours, and some of our dinners. After a few minutes with our cohorts, we got back together as a group  and had Don wrap up the meeting. He told us all about the flights we'd be taking in a few weeks and reminded us that we were  privileged to have this opportunity.

When we were all dismissed, I took a picture with everyone from my school, Middle College High School, and said my final goodbyes to them until our school year starts again. After that, I went home for dinner--I can honestly say that we were all starving.