Lining Up the Ducks

Tonight we had our ILC orientation at Pinole Middle School. The The school looks so new and perfect. I remember attending in seventh grade, I was there for about three weeks and the school has not started reconstruction yet. As usual I was worrying about being late and I probably made it there just in time. Unfortunately, there were a few students who were late and that was really bad. When I heard that there were students who were late, I felt a shiver zipping down my back. I know how much Don talk about being punctual and he always stretches on how important it is so I can only imagine what trouble those students are in. I hope to never put myself in that situation.

After a while of waiting Mr. Ramsey decided to start the meeting. The first item on the list was "Punctuality" followed by "Following instruction". I have always been good at following instruction, except for this one time where the teacher tricked me into being labeled as "Not being able to follow instruction". After that the chaperones went up and introduced themselves to everyone. Mr. Mannix said something (I won't tell what it is yet) about our trip that I cannot wait to blog about. Don then continues to speak about the things expected of us and how we should prepare for the trip. 

Next we separated into different cohorts and had one on one time with our chaperone. Shout out to Mr. Mannix for creating such a detailed itinerary. Some other cohort didn't even have theirs yet and here we have one that has flight numbers, tour confirmations, hotels, train times, and activities. He answered our many questions and when there was no questions, he did an awesome job of keeping away the awkward silence. Thank goodness for that because I have a slight fear for awkward silence. I am so excited for the trip that I’m just itching to blog about it while listening to Mr. Mannix talks about the trip.

Mr. Ramsey’s congratulation for officially being in the ILC afterward made me feel pretty accomplished. He gave some great words of wisdom that was really inspirational and I hope to live by them. Just before we Left Don talked about parents visiting when we are on the east coast, which is not allowed. He said that one parent took a vacation during the time that their child traveled and followed them. I would be as red as a tomato if my parent were to stalk me into the east coast.

The orientation overall was very informational for both students and parent. My dad was pretty glad to have all the flights and hotels information. We are all so much closer towards our trip and I cannot wait.