Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Saga Begins

What a privilege and an honor it is to be part of the first Ivy League Connection group to depart for the 2011 summer. I look forward to having a great learning experience not only at Brown University, but at the multiple colleges we visit, the admissions officers that we meet with, and general learning of a foreign place in the Rhode Island area. I woke up this morning at around 2:30 AM. Most people would suspect that I would be tired, but I could hardly wait to get out of bed because I was just so excited to begin the journey of a lifetime. Last year around this time when I was leaving for Cornell University I was nervous, yet anxious at the same time. But this year that dose of nervousness was replaced with confidence knowing that I am fully equipped to academically compete with anyone. A large part of this reason is because of how well our ILC family has prepared me.

We all arrived at El Cerrito High ready to leave for Providence, Rhode Island. The looks on my parent’s faces were of a dual nature. On one hand their expressions showed extreme happiness knowing that I was going to receive one of the best educations that any high school student could receive in 28 days. But they also showed some feelings of melancholy because they would not see me for a month. As they and I know, this is part of the maturation process that every teenager and their parents will go through. We said our goodbyes with an overabundance of hugs and kisses. We rode the shuttle to the airport and from this moment on we all realized that our journey has finally begun.

The airport process was not as arduous as usual. The only minor problem that I faced was in seating arrangement. My cohorts and chaperone were assigned seats of B 25-29, but my seat was B-49. No one is certain as to how this happened, but it made no difference once we were on the plane because it was open seating, so we all sat together. Our flight went from Oakland Airport to Chicago Midway Airport. I was relieved that there were no weather interferences with our flight schedule, compared to my experience last year in which my ILC group was stuck in O’Hare Airport for 23 hours. We had about an hour layover before we finally flew in to Providence, Rhode Island.

We arrived in Providence, Rhode Island exhausted, but enthusiastic to see what this wonderful region of the country has in store for us. We arrived at our quite quaint but beautiful hotel: Providence Hotel. We quickly got settled into our rooms and headed to dinner around the corner at local 121 Restaurant. Because we were all extremely tired, we went back to our rooms and got some rest. I am excited for our college visits in Boston, MIT and Boston University, it shall be fun.

2 comments:

  1. Andrew,

    I had to chuckle a little when I read that you were waking up at 2:30 AM. Just about that time I had already been at ECHS for about 20 minutes waiting on you all.

    I'm so glad that everything worked out with regards to your place in line at the airport. I have no idea how it decided you should be 25 places farther down the queue than your cohorts but it bothered me nonetheless.

    After last year's marathon adventure in O'Hare I'm betting you were a little bit leery flying back in there. You had to feel relieved when it all worked out fine this time around.

    ReplyDelete

Real Time Web Analytics