A Bittersweet Day

Walking to breakfast With Tyler,
Phoebe, and Cindy 

As we were walking to the Ratty for breakfast this morning Tyler got a message from Tory, our TA, asking if we wanted to get crepes with her for a celebratory last day breakfast. Of course we couldn’t resist the invitation. Not only would we get delicious crepes but we would also get to spend some time with the best TA ever. As soon as we got to the crepe place we realized that it was closed. My hopes of gooey Nutella and fresh fruit were quickly shattered but we found another café to have breakfast at. It was amazing to talk to Tory more and I realized how much I will miss her.

We all headed to class together and met up with the rest of our amazing class. We started off class looking at a slideshow where an image started off very small and then grew larger and larger expanding our perspective of the situation. Mary Grace explained how this reflected the learning in our class. In class we all started off with fairly narrow or uninformed perspectives but we soon expanded our knowledge through discussion and analysis. Next we made a list of things that we had learned in this class. I was astounded just thinking about what I had learned because the material that we covered was so vast. I learned so much in this class from both my peers and Mary Grace.

Mary Grace and Tory 

Once we were finished with this we did an appreciation circle. We started this off by all sitting with our eyes closed except for five individuals who stood in the middle. Mary Grace would say a statement and the girls in the middle would go around and tap the shoulders of all the girls that applied. I felt so much closer to my class through doing this activity. Once each girl got a chance to be in the middle we switched it up and made verbal appreciations of our class, Tory, and Mary Grace. There were a lot of tears because the class was sad to separate. We had all bonded so quickly and didn’t want to leave yet.

Last Mean in ther Ratty

We all got lunch in the ratty then headed to McMillan Hall for our action plan presentations. There was a short introduction by Kisa of all of the Leader Fellows and Teachers then we all watched a slideshow. The Women and Leadership class made up the majority of the photos in the slideshow so we thoroughly enjoyed watching the last two weeks play by. After the slideshow we left the auditorium and found our small groups for the action plan presentation. I presented my action plan second out of all the people in my group so I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the presentations. Since we practiced presenting yesterday I wasn’t nearly as nervous as some of the other students.

As soon as all of the presentations were over I met up with the rest of my class in front of McMillan Hall. I got to say my goodbyes to everybody including Tory and Mary Grace. I also sadly said farewell to my roommate who I will miss a lot. She was the best roommate I could ever ask for. I got to meet her parents which was really cool. I hope that she comes and visits Berkeley at some point so I can visit with her. Tyler and Phoebe had already left so I didn’t get to say my final goodbyes to them but Tyler is going to visit the Bay Area in October so I hope to meet up with her then. Saying goodbye to everybody made me realize how close bonds I had formed in such a short amount of time.

Leaving Providence 

We packed up the last of our luggage, returned our loaner fans, and then headed off to meet with Guy Sanchez. Guy Sanchez is a Brown alum who had so much helpful information to share with us about Brown. He gave us a lot of reasons why Brown would be a great school to go to but also taught us things about other schools. It was great to hear his enthusiasm and was a fabulous way to wrap up our Brown experience. After we had thanked Guy we headed off to take a final picture at the Van Wickle Gates and then went off to the train station. We had about an hour wait at the train station but time flew by as Cindy kept me occupied with jokes.

Cindy on the Train 

The train was pretty busy but I was still able to sit next to Cindy. I took the hour train ride to relax and look at the scenery out the window. I also enjoyed having stimulating conversations with Cindy about our experience at Brown.

We got to the Boston Train Station and then took the red line of the T to our hotel. The hotel was really nice. Cindy and I got to share a room. We all went out into Harvard square to get dinner. When we got back I went to the hotel gym for a little bit. It was small but nice and cool to run in unlike the eighty-degree weather outside. I got back to my room and sank into a clean, huge, and extremely comfy bed for the first time in weeks.