Thursday, June 9, 2011

T-Minus One Month

At 7:30 this evening, I will look outside my front window and try to spot the airplane that will be taking my sister, Mariko Whitenack, and several others from El Cerrito High School to Japan for a study and culture trip, where they will stay for two weeks. This is the first time my sister will be away from home for so long, and I feel slightly strange not having her in the house. At the same time, the fact that she will be leaving makes me think about how I will be leaving for Brown University in less than a month. Brown Session 1 cohorts will be leaving next Tuesday, and I can already tell how ecstatic they are about going to Brown for about a month.
A crowded city in Japan

By next week, this blog will be flooding with posts from Brown Session I about the colleges they are visiting, their classes, what they like/dislike about the campus, and the people that they have met. At the same time, it makes me truly wonder what my experience will be like. I've taken classes at UC Berkeley for the past three summers, and for the first time since fourth grade, this will be the first summer that I am not doing ATDP (Academic Talent Development Program). That also feels strange; not doing the program. I am so used to writing an essay about myself and getting all my stuff together to send to UC Berkeley, but now, I am not. This time, I wrote an essay for Ivy League Connection and signed many forms to send to Brown University.
Brown University 
Today was the last day of school for El Cerrito High School, so the fact that it is summer vacation has not truly sunk in yet. I still feel like I have to scramble to finish math homework or remember Spanish drills, but I know in the next few days I will realize that sophomore year is truly over for me. I think that going to Brown will definitely help me prepare more for junior year; the most important year in high school.

Something else that struck me was the form of leadership. I was reading the ILC Yale blog last night and read Matt [Lee's] blog post about the ILC orientation, in which he mentioned when he got home that he and his family had a discussion about leadership. The course I will be taking focuses on the development of women leaders. I feel like no one is perfect and that everyone has something to work on. No one is a "natural-born leader" - it takes time, development, and growth to truly become a leader. Not just a leader to a community or nation, but a leader within ones self.
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