Friday, July 31, 2015

Last Day At Brown

Today was the last day of class. It turned out to be way more emotional than I expected. Class started at 10AM, an hour later than usual. It gave me time to get my stuff ready for later because we were going to Boston

The first thing we did in class was to mention 1 word that described how we felt. I said mixed emotions. I was happy because it meant I was going back home soon. I was sad because I wanted to take that class for the rest of my life. I was really sad that this was the last time the whole class and I was going to be together. 

The second thing we did was an activity where we were all sitting in a circle with our eyes closed. Mary Grace tapped 5 people and those were able to open their eyes, stand up, and tap other people that were part of the question. For example, "Tap someone if they made you smile today." We had to lightly touch them on the shoulder. I was one of the 5 people she picked first. The questions made me want to tap everyone since everyone was such amazing human beings! Everytime someone tapped me, it was such a great feeling. Tory, the TA was even tearing up at this point.

Mary Grace had small gift for each one of us. Even though it was really small it was so cute and meaningful. She gave us a small bag with playdoh, a rubber band, bubbles, and we each had a couple of pieces to a 100 piece puzzle. The playdoh represented that we were able to shape ourselves and be who we wanted. The rubber band meant to not stretch our selves too thin. The puzzle pieces meant that even if it was our last day being together, we would always be connected in some sort of way. When she said this, I got really emotional. It was such a sad moment, everyone started crying.
One Last Picture

It is amazing how we were only in the course for two weeks and in those two weeks we learned so many topics Mary Grace brought up to us and we learned so much from each other. We were able to create a bond that I think no one else could have in just two weeks. I really will never forget about this amazing experience that made me have a completely different perspective in life. 

After saying our good-byes, we had to present our Action Plans. Saying goodbye and getting really emotional before the presentations was probably a bad idea but we still worked through it. I was really nervous to present I kept practicing because I really did not want to use notecards. Once we were separated into different groups with all the Leadership institute students, each group left to a different building. My group only had 6 girls to present and out of all of those 6 girls only 1 group of parents was there. I really wanted to present before anyone but since other girls had a flight right after it i had to let them go first. Unfortunately, I ended up going second to last. It actually was not as bad as I thought it would be. All of the girls were really nice and everyone was super supportive. After we all met up in front of another building and took pictures with each other and said a less emotional goodbye. 
Beautiful Faces
Deionte, Our Leader Fellow! 

We met at Chipotle with an alumni, Guy. He mentioned most of his educational experiences from his life. He talked about his daughter a lot. She speaks 3 languages; English, Spanish, and Arabic. People that speak more than 2 languages really amaze me. I am really hoping that soon I am able to take a class to learn another language other than Spanish. He mentioned his friend spoke more than 7 languages which was fascinating! One thing that I know I am going to remember for a long time was when he said to not worry about having enough money while applying to an Ivy school. The hardest thing to do is get accepted. To worry about that. After getting accepted there is always help to pay for it. Also about the college applications, many people write about what they do like clubs, sports, community service, etc. He believes it is more important to write about yourself.  I was really thinking about this and I pretty much agreed with it. So many people try to do so many activities just so it will be beneficial to get accepted to college and that is really all they write about. It gets kind of old and does not really make you stand out from the rest. 

Today was the first time I have every been on Amtrak. For some reason I had big expectations. I thought it would be super fancy inside but it was okay. The trip was not that long. Once we got off Amtrak we got on the subway. It was really packed in there specially with all of our luggage. On our way out we could not find an elevator so we had to take our luggage up the stairs, it was a hassle. 

Inside The Hotel
Outside the subway was really sketchy. It kind of reminded me of San Francisco. Right after the subway exit there was a cemetery. It was super creepy. I usually do not like being by cemeteries. We had to walk with our luggage all the way to the hotel. It was so tiring but a great work out.  These past two weeks I have been walking a lot more than usual and it is a great feeling. 

The inside of the hotel was really nice. I am sleeping in a room with Mahi and Diana. Right after we got our rooms we decided to go out. We went to a restaurant a couple of blocks away from the hotel called Flat Patties. It was really good. I ordered a hamburger with fries. The fries were delicious. 
Flat Patties
Hamburger & Fries 

On our way back we were really tired decided to blog and get some rest afterwards.

I really cannot believe how fast these two weeks have gone by. There is not enough times I could say. I wish I could go back to the first day!

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