An Abnormal Start to an Ecstatic End of the First Milestone

Hi! I am Komal Kumar. This picture is the courtesy of my friend Ernestina.

It was 12:30 AM when I heard my phone buzz. This was quite strange as I would normally never wake up to the buzzing of my phone. The abnormality of this situation continued as I felt wide awake without a single strain of sleep. 

I decided to get out bed and check my phone. I saw that my dear friend Jahnvi had texted me with a question about her blogger profile. I replied to her message and had a small chat with her about the upcoming big day, the tutorial. 

After chatting with Jahnvi, I touched up my own blogger profile and climbed back into my bed. I tried to fall asleep, but was rather unsuccessful. After a few minutes of ardently trying, I gave up and started thinking about tomorrow. I had a strange anxiety for the tutorial day, similar to the kind I had last year when I attended the 2015 Ivy League Connection tutorial. I started strolling through the memory lane of my last year's ILC journey and rejoicing all the unforgettable experiences and memories of my past ILC journey. Before long, I fell asleep with a smile on my face and excitement for the tutorial.

"Beep, beep, beep..." bleated my alarm at 6:30 AM. I woke up somewhat tired, but I quickly sprinted out of my bed to get dressed, eat a scrawny early morning breakfast, and hurry to the tutorial. After frantically hurrying my dad, I left for the tutorial at 7:20 AM. Relief to my extreme anxiety of getting late, I arrived at the school twenty minutes early. I walked into De Anza's computer lab, the location of the tutorial session, and spotted a few familiar faces, my friends, and Don Gosney. 

I walked into this setting. 

After all the ILCers arrived, Don began the tutorial. He started off by reminding all the ILCers about their responsibilities. He then continued by explaining how to draft blogs and use the various features of blogspot. We practiced his instructions by crafting practice blogs which ranged from philosophical content to gibberish. My practice blog lamented about my sorrow of not being able to go to prom this year while I watched my friends enjoy in merriment.

After this fun exercise, Don gave some tricks in taking proper pictures, editing them, and posting them on blogs. He then instructed everyone to walk around and take a few pictures. This, like last year, was the most fun part of the event. Everyone took crazy, artsy, and/or cute pictures and inserted them in their previously created practice blogs. 

I wasn't joking when I said the photo session was full of crazy photography. (From left to right: Jahnvi, me, and Ernestina) 

Soon after, Don described ILC's important protocols and outlined future events. Afterwards, Don discussed the things we would need to bring East to accommodate with the hotels, dorms, and bathrooms. The list appeared familiar and aroused excitement for the summer. We even did a laptop security drill using a laptop security cable. After four hours of reminding, describing, and explaining, Don ended the tutorial, the first milestone of my 2016 ILC journey, leaving me ecstatic for the upcoming events and an amazing summer!

After-tutorial photo session with these lovely ladies. (From left to right: me, Jocelyn, Bailey, and Lynda)

Of course we had to take a group photo in front of the Ivy League Connection banner.