A New Beginning

Chicago Alumni, my cohorts and me holding the Chicago flag.

I just got back from the best dinner in my life at Prospect restaurant, in San Francisco , but I hope it won't be the first or last one. When I said dinner, I am referring to the food that's why is worth its price. The steak was pretty good, but what really made my tummy happy was the rocky road sundae dessert. It was the best sundae I have ever tried. It came with chocolate ice cream, Tahitian vanilla, and dark chocolate accompanies with marshmallows, chocolate covered almonds, and balsamic caramel. Well enough with the food and let's get down to business.

First of all, I want to thank the sponsors, School Board members, our chaperon, Ramsey and finally Don for this opportunity to represent not just only the program but my district and community. For making possible for my cohorts and me to have this opportunity and to be the first one to go Chicago to show them where we come from, who we are and to know about us, that we are dedicated students trying to reach for the stars and land in the moon. As one of the members of the ILC mentioned it when he introduced himself. This inspiring quote reminds me of a quote by Paul Brandt that goes, “Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” I love this quote because there are two meanings for it. One is that there is a whole world out there waiting for you and staying in the same place can make you lose the chance to explore and meet new people around the world. Another meaning is that you need to challenge yourself and always have high self expectations or goals.

Lets come back to the dinner now. We were all suppose to be at BART of El Cerrito Plaza no later than 5:20 PM. Myself along with my cohorts were ready around 5:30 PM and we managed to catch and early train which was very convenient because the more earlier we get there the faster we get out. During my ride on the train, on my way to the Prospect restaurant, I got to mingle with Josephine mom which was very interesting because we talked about her experienced the first time she ride on an airplane and she traveled on the airplane for more than 25 hours. Oyins' mom took off first from Nigeria, where she's from. After taking off from Nigeria it took her 10 hours to arrive in London were she waited four hours. When the four hours passed, she then took off from London to San Francisco for a total of 15 hours. We started talking about airplane because I told her that this was my first time for everything meaning; get to travel on an airplane, first time getting out of the state, first time visiting Chicago and the list keeps on going. This is all possible because of ILC.

Josephine With my dad

When we arrived at our destination, we needed still to walk a few blocks to get to the Prospect restaurant. It took us at least 5 minutes or less to arrive at the restaurant and that's where Alie, my chaperon, was waiting for us at the front of the restaurant. When everyone went inside the restaurant, one of the server took us where the dinner was going to be held at. Ramsey was finishing the last touches on getting the table organized with name tags. After a couple of minutes the alumni started coming in and we started introducing to them and exchanging basic information such as my name, what school I go to, and what course am I going to take in the summer. In the beginning I was not mingling with the alumni because they were already talking to some of my cohorts and I did not want to be rude and get in their conversation. Alie I saw that I was not interacting with other people and she gave me three good question to start a conversation. That was very helpful for me because I am not very good at starting conversations.

We waiting at least half and hour until we were told that the tables were ready and we can start sitting down. In my table I was sitting with two alumni they were Elspeth and with Michael . With Reginald one of the sponsors of the ILC. Last but not least with Madeline, Eleazer (Danis' dad) and Dani. Elspeth gave me some recommendations of what places I should go visit in Chicago. Elspeth graduated from the University of Chicago in 2009 with a major in arts. Michael graduated in the year of 1981 at Chicago with a major in chemistry.

After, the food was served and my cohort Alexa gave a speech about how this program is helping her and what's the goals for this program. The speech that really inspired me was Ramsey speech because i could of tell that he was speaking with his heart. My favorite part of the speech was when he said that you have to believe in yourself and with confident you can go way bigger than you're dreams and you will show the people who doubted you since day one that you can do or be what ever you want.

This dinner gave me the sensation of unbelievable because I still can't believe that I am very lucky to go to Chicago and that this is really going to happen. To have this opportunity to go travel and visit others colleges. To open our eyes that there are a lot more opportunities out there for you.

Thank you for all the people that were available to go to the dinner it really means a lot to me that I can share this precious moments with all of you.