Aerial Views and Layovers

Today I woke up at 2:00 AM on Wednesday feeling extremely anxious, but prepared to take on whatever obstacle that I might face for the duration of this trip. I had exactly one hour of sleep due to my nervousness. All night long I lay in bed tossing and turning, so I basically only had an hour of sleep.  It might seem strange, but I work well when I’m practically sleep deprived. When I get too much sleep I feel like I just want to lie back down and go back to bed.

My mother and I arrived to El Cerrito High School and I didn't feel tired at all. Don weighed my bag in and I realized that I could have packed a lot more clothes. Unfortunately, I was so precautious when it came to not exceeding the weight limit that I didn't pack enough. I didn't understand that each checkout bag could weigh forty-two pounds, but instead I thought that altogether it had to equal forty-two pounds. However, I know that if I needed more clothes I could go out and buy some at a random store. After I parted with my mother I boarded the airport shuttle and it was time for me to get on a plane for the first time

As my cohort and I reached the Oakland Airport I received my boarding pass from Ms. Neal and we turned in our check-in bags. After I put my items in the tray so that they could be checked by airport security, I thought that I had lost my boarding pass. For a slight moment my heart sank and I panicked immediately. Ms. Neal told me that she put it in a tray and I regained my composure.  Surprisingly a lot of the adults were really pushy and a tad bit rude. Even though they were rude I just decided that they must have been in a rush.  One of the things that I realized about myself on this trip thus far is that I have to learn how to brush off rude comments.  This experience has taught me that you are going to encounter rude people everywhere you go, so you should just learn how to be the more intelligent person and carry yourself with class. I used my boarding pass and onto Chicago I went. 

When I boarded the plane I wasn’t nervous at all. When I was on the plane it felt like I was on a fun carnival ride and I enjoyed looking outside the plane window.  I heard such horror stories about people sweating profusely, shaking, or getting motion sickness. However, it was like I flew via plane all the time. I was really fascinated by the fact that the ground was  perfectly aligned with rectangles of land, crop circles, and plateaus.  The following below is something that I learned on my first plane ride. This fun fact explained the reason why the building that you are currently in spontaneously gets darker. 

 Fun fact: Clouds cast shadows

After I finished gasping over the magnificent aerial view I was observing, I decided to get to know my fellow cohort member Julia. In the beginning it was slightly awkward, because we had to sit next to a person that we don’t know much about and converse. I learned that Julia and I had the same standards. Julia loves to do theater and wants to find a way to incorporate her passion into her Action Plan. We discussed our Action Plans and she told me that she wanted to utilize her talents and make senior citizens in her community happy. Julia and I both want to create clubs this year that we feel could help our school academically and emotionally. 

Julia and I had a few differences like her being a tomboy while I am more of a girly-girl. 

Julia is an atheist and I am a Christian, but we both told each other that we respect each other’s opinions and beliefs. 

My First Plane Ride

Despite these minuscule dissimilarities we still enjoyed one another’s company and we both agreed on the fact that we thought that if teachers would make their lessons more enjoyable then more students would come to school regularly. Teenagers feel like their teachers don’t truly care about them and the lack of enjoyable after-school activities increases gang activities. Our youth needs to have their minds stimulated and also have other reasons for attending school that encourages them to try to accomplish more. I really enjoyed brain storming about the problems in our society and how we could try to resolve them with Julia.

I switched partners on the layover to Rhode Island and I ended up sitting next to Shraddha. She was so shy and in disbelief when she realized that her hard work was finally paying off.   One of the similarities that I see in all of us is that we are extremely humble and appreciative of this opportunity. No one is cocky and knew without a doubt that they would be selected as a member of the Ivy League Connection. Shraddha and I, who were also unacquainted with each other, discussed the pressure of having to complete out AP summer assignments and getting good grades.

Baggage Claim Area

After about three hours on the second flight we got off of the plane and I didn’t notice how humid it was until we left the air-conditioned filled airport. If you could have witnessed the shock on my face when I stepped out of the airport, then you would know that it looked as if I had just seen a ghost.

Apparently Brown University is even popular in the baggage claim area.

Hotel Providence Lobby

After we received our bags we checked into Hotel Providence. I was elated when I saw our room for the first time. Crystal and I unpacked a few things and got settled in. We meet the rest of the women down in the lobby and went to Luxe, a hamburger restaurant, for dinner. Overall, it was a wonderful day and a productive learning experience.