Let It Go-rientation

Oh, hush. I've had Frozen songs stuck in my head. You're just going to have to get used to my terrible pun titles. 

The ILC orientation meeting was today—the final step before our departure to Penn. We had been warned that if we were late our scholarships would be revoked, so I was one of the first to arrive, entering Pinole Middle School about a half hour before the meeting began.

Don's outfits are getting to be very predictable.

Don started the meeting, and spent a while talking about what we were expected to do and what the trip would be like, things I remembered very clearly from having spent a few weeks on the East Coast with the ILC last year. This meant that a lot of the meeting was review for me, though Don's occasional joke was nice. It was sort of sweet to be reminded of myself a year ago, getting my first glimpse of what my summer experience would be.

The best part of the orientation for me was the breakout session where we got into our cohorts and discussed the specifics for our school. We each signed some forms and received a schedule (color-coded and everything) which I—oops—have left in the car. ...After the perilous journey to the car, I can tell you that we will be touring Georgetown University, seeing the Smithsonian (I can almost hear Julia Mason squeal in excitement from here), touring UPenn, touring NYU, touring Columbia, eating pizza, visiting Times Square, and heading back to Philadelphia. We leave on the 30th, and all this is before the Fourth of July, which is sort of a day off for us. Next we're going to tour Princeton (Mr. Hillyer keeps saying it looks like something out of Harry Potter, and I keep dying to see it), and then, after all of that, we start Social Justice. Whew. We're going to be very busy this summer. 

We were called back in, and Don continued the meeting, telling us about each of the items we would need and why we would need them. Don discussed the travel fans, and I remembered the blistering heat at Brown last summer. Fortunately, Don said that the dorms at Penn were so well air-conditioned that it was actually cold. That was a huge relief; I remembered having to keep my little fan inches away from my face while I read the course packet. Pretty soon, the meeting was over, and Natalie Meacham and I carpooled home. We made some pretty fantastic selfie-related memories. 

We have less than a month before we leave for Penn. (It's funny how my heart decides to do a little drum solo whenever I think about that.) I am so excited for this trip. I can't wait to go all these places and see all these things, to visit all these colleges, to study all these new ideas about our world, to change, and to watch myself become a better person through this program. I know it will happen. I've done it before.