The Kick Off

Is it strange that with every task Don gives us I get more excited? Every time I check my emails I'm hoping there is some information or something else he needs us to do. All week I was anticipating going to the tutorial, I couldn't believe it when I realized it was 3 AM and I only had 5 hours left until I was expected to be at De Anza High for it.

The beautiful Ivy League Connection banner.

I woke up to the soothing sound of J. Cole from my 6 AM alarm. After pressing snooze a couple of times I was able to get up and carry on with my morning. As usual, I spent majority of my morning getting ready and only had time to grab a banana to fill my empty stomach as I rushed out the door. Despite knowing it's only a 6 minute drive, I let my nerves get the best of me and left my house at 7:39 AM. I arrived with 15 minutes to spare.

Despite my usual overthinking, I was more excited than anything for the tutorial. I was excited to mingle with the members of my Brown cohort a bit and kick off the start to this awesome journey. When I arrived I jumped out the car with a fairly quick goodbye to my mother. As soon as I got out the car I felt the very cold breeze, although the temperature was the last thing on my mind, and began speed walking into the entrance on the right side of the ILC banner.

When I walked into the computer lab I scanned the room and found Lynda, one of my friends who will also be taking the Women & Leadership course at Brown. Lynda then introduced me to Krystal, another member of our cohort. I took a seat at the computer next to Krystal and Lynda and instantly felt better about how this day was gonna go and how much fun we're going to have together on our trip. 

At 8 Don began the tutorial. In a little bit under a 5 hour session (I know it sounds long, but it definitely didn't feel that way) we covered topics ranging from blogging and photography to rules and trip information. Don provided us with chips, cookies, and water which kept me full during the tutorial. After our introduction to blogging we got to create practice blogs where we learned how to format our blogs correctly. We even got to have some fun with each other during the photography practice and actually got some really great pictures. We also added the pictures that we took today to those practice posts. The thing that struck me most today was I'm definitely going to struggle in my packing process, but I'll worry about that when I get there. Overall, it was a very fun and informational day. I'm so very excited to share more of my experiences on this blog.