Thursday morning, I woke up early to go eat at Pancake Pantry with my proctor group. We decided on wanting to do something together on the last day, and also Koral (one of the girls from my group) had been waiting to eat there for 4 years. When we went there, there was actually no line so the wait was not as long as the first time that I had went there. I only ordered a waffle with orange juice and finished the majority of it just in time before walking back to the campus (we were almost late due to the delay in the food arrival).
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| The L^6 proctor group! |
After we came back from lunch, the wheelchair company came to pick up the wheelchairs, so we brought them downstairs outside. When everyone settled down again, Monte started to explain more of what she does for her work, research-wise. She worked in the Brazilian Amazon for a few years and looked at the way that the families had lived because of child labor. In Brazil, the children often are the ones who work the most during Acai season since they are much smaller than adults and can reach the top of the Acai trees to harvest them. They do not have any safety harnesses and climb up trees with a machete in their hand or mouth to cut off the branch of Acai berries. It seems sad, but the children's work are vital to the family for enough money to live off of.
There was not any study hall because there was going to be a closing ceremony from 3 to 4 PM. We said our goodbyes to Monte and took pictures with her for memories. Zach walked the class to the Rotunda and got us all seated. John, the head director of activities, announced the house cup which went to "S" House! Although "A" House came in last, I still had a lot of fun participating in the friendly competitions. Each head of house did their speeches and then they played a 10 minute slideshow of everybody's experience at VSA since the first day that we came. After the ceremony, we were released to our dorms to pack and clean up, and then get ready for dinner. After dinner, everyone went back to the Rotunda for the masquerade themed dance. I am not really a dancer, but I tried to join in on the big group dances during "Cupid Shuffle" and other similar songs. I saw the difference between this dance and the first one, everybody seemed closer with each other and actually seemed to want to be engaging. Once the dance ended, a proctor group meeting broke out right away on our respective floors. In my proctor group meeting, we finished off the last of the po(sitive)-go(ssip)'s and did group superlatives. Lizzy also handed out our term-books out and then dismissed us. I went to different floors to get others to sign my term-book and made more friendship bracelets until 12:30 AM, which was lights out.
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| 3/4ths of the cohort and Monte Talley! |
The next morning, was a very sad one. I woke up at 7 AM, to see that my roommate was getting ready to leave for her shuttle to the airport. I walked her down to the lobby where they were supposed to meet and helped her with her stuff. My Pennsylvania friends were leaving at the same time too, so Arnold and I said our goodbyes and shared a few tears. I know that we all have grown close bonds with each other, but I did not want to believe the fact that we were probably not going to ever see each other again (unless we end up at the same college). After all of the hugs, it was time to meet at our proctor's doors to walk down to the last breakfast together.
I finished packing up after breakfast and then Jenny came to check us out! We went to the hotel to drop off our stuff and ate in their restaurant to save some time. Then, the airport shuttle came to pick us up and drive us over. We went to check in our luggage, go through security, and then saw that our flight was delayed. We went to the C7 section, where we would go to in order to board the plane, and asked the front desk about how long the delay might be. It was delayed by a whole hour. So, we went around to get some drinks (I got a smoothie) and bumped into a girl from my proctor group, Jessica! We invited her to tag along and hang out with us before the final goodbye, her flight was not leaving until after us to North Carolina. The time came to depart and we went onto the plane and flew for 4 and a half hours. We got off the plane, took in a deep breath of the Bay Area air, and retrieved our luggage. We walked out to the parking lot to get picked up by the shuttle and there was a little mishap with the area, since one driver had told us to go to the D4 area, and the other driver was at G4. The driver came and dropped Jenny off at where her car was in Oakland, and we continued on the road to get to El Cerrito High School.
The moment had finally came, we were finally back. As much as I missed Nashville, I missed the Bay Area as well and it was nice to see all of the reunions with my cohort and their families. We took a couple of last pictures with the Vanderbilt flag behind us and said some more goodbyes. I will forever remember and cherish the times that we all had with each other and our new friends at Vanderbilt, everyone was so nice and friendly! I think that I can say on behalf of the cohort, we all definitely had a blast. It had been a very long day and going back home to my bed had made me realized that I was way more tired than I thought that I would be over the past couple of days. No matter the distance, my cohort and I (as well as our friends) will still be connected. I really believe that it is the works of the connection in the Ivy League Connection.
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| The fabulous four hugging good bye (missing Jenny). |
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