Monday, July 24, 2017

A Day of Disasters

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, figuratively and literally. My alarm went off, and that was just when I was about to fall off the bed, but fortunately I managed to save myself. The weather was quite gloomy, and that definitely reminded me of home; however there was no time to waste! Today was the first today of class, and by no means did I want to be late. I got ready in about 15 minutes, and then my roommate Sonia and I walked down to the Ratty for breakfast. The weather was so beautiful. Compared to all the heat we've been experiencing the past few days, it was like heaven. But that title wouldn't last for long.

Quote of the day
I met up with Kelsey, Esmeralda, Bianche, and Bianche's roommate Ashley at the dining hall. I wasn't too hungry, so all I had was 3 boiled eggs, a banana, and cup of tea. Once we were all done eating, we had about 10 minutes until class began so we rushed out of the Ratty towards List Hall, which is where our class was going to be held. On the way there, there were also two girls looking for the same class, so we all walked together. 


Mary Grace
Thankfully, due to the tours provided by the RA's yesterday, I had a general idea of where class would be. We walked in and there was Mary Grace Almandrez,  our incredible,  sweet, optimistic, and extremely enthusiastic professor. Class began with introductions, and then we moved onto ice breakers, such as ranking our comfortableness within the class. My favorite exercise, however, was when we paired up with a partner and were given three questions to ask them. Once we asked the question, we could not speak until the other person was done speaking. It was the questions I especially loved. The first one was, "Who are you?", the second one was "Who do you pretend to be?", and the third and final question was "What do you wish people knew about you?" These questions were not something that crossed our minds on a daily basis. It required us to think, as well as be respectful. Things became quite personal with these questions; however it was in efforts to make us more comfortable, and it definitely worked.

We also did a gallery walk with controversial images regarding women. The purpose was to post our opinions next to the images and get a general feel for the issues. The responses were absolutely amazing. During the gallery walk, I walked to my backpack to grab some chapstick from a pouch I carry inside my backpack, and that was when I realized my pouch was missing! The bag contained my daily skin, hair, and makeup items. I looked around the classroom hoping it would be somewhere there, but unfortunately it wasn't. I then wondered if I had left it in the dining hall. During our break, I rushed over to the dining hall and asked one of the workers if they had seen my pouch, and I was fortunate enough to have had someone turn it in for me.

As a part of the class, Mary Grace assigns mini assignments to do during our lunch break. Today's was to create a roll call name/chant for our assigned group as well as a group picture. One of my group members had forgotten her ID at the dorm and she decided to walk back and just take a nap. My other group member and I decided since we were all from California to call ourselves team California and to make things a bit more interesting, we would put on a pair of sunglasses as we said California. After eating, I was heading back to the dorm and so I packed my other group member a take out box of food.

Esmeralda also joined me on the walk back to the dorm, as she needed to change clothes since they were soaked. Did I mention it was raining? A LOT. She had forgotten her umbrella at home and my umbrella wasn't the largest,  and so the two of us were half dry and half wet. The rain and wind continued to grow stronger as we walked back, and eventually we made it. Esmeralda went to her room to get changed, and I went to my room to grab her jacket for her, since I had the bag of items from the bookstore; however as I went to grab my wallet, which is where I had placed my key, I couldn't find it. I looked through my bag but I saw nothing. I dumped out all the contents, yet still nothing. I began to panic. I had quite a bit  of important things in there, and so I called everyone who I possibly could have left it around. I called my friends in the dining hall, yet they didn't see anything. My  classmates weren't answering their phone, and my thoughts shifted to thinking  I had left it on my desk in the classroom.

Not wanting to  be late, Esmeralda and I both rushed out the building towards class. Halfway through Esmeralda realized she left her dorm key inside her dorm room, and didn't know which class her roommate was taking. The whole trip back it felt like the rain kept getting worse, and worse. My shoes for some reason kept rubbing on the back of my feet, rubbing off the skin, despite the fact I was wearing socks. Next thing you know, my white sneakers got a little touch of red on both of the back sides. This made walking all the more difficult. The pouring rain didn't help either, not one bit. It really did feel like it kept getting worse.  The two of us were miserable and cold. 

When we got to class, my wallet was not on my desk, and so I asked Mary Grace if I could go search for it in the dining hall. I arrived at the dining hall, and no luck I looked everywhere, but there was  nothing. I began to panic even more and the cold and pain in my feet made things all the more worse. I decided to go back to class, not  wanting to waste anytime. I decided to report the issue later. I walked back to the building and saw both of my TA's, Ashley and Imani, talking outside with Mary Grace while the students were drawing out life maps. I told them my little issue and Imani, who is also an RA for Perkins, said she could give Brown Police Services a call for me, and that somewhat lifted my spirit. I checked my bag one final time, and there was my wallet, hidden underneath all my other belongings. I could not have been more relieved.

The remainder of class consisted of us drawing out our life maps as well as planning out our Action Plans. Once class was over the Leadership Institute had a Director's presentation that we needed to attend. The  presentation began with Kisa Takesue, the director of all the leadership programs.  She went over leadership theory and also discussed the leadership model our classes would be revolved around. She then handed it over to the leadership fellows, who were all of our RA's and TA's. We were already introduced to our RA's yesterday, so there was a sense of familiarity and many of us have already began to bond with our RA's.  Ms. Takesue then showed us a Ted-Talk video regarding leadership and all its different froms, which was actually quite interesting.
The leadership fellows introducing themselves
Once that was over, we were free to do as we liked. I  was feeling quite exhausted from all the mess that happened in the morning, and so Esmeralda, Kelsey, my floormate Thea and I went back to the dorm to rest a bit before starting our work. It thankfully wasn't raining too hard on our walk back, which was nice because I really didn't want to be drenched  another time. 

Despite all the mishaps that occurred today, my class definitely made up for it. It was a wonderful, wonderful 4 hours. In the beginning of class I wasn't feeling entirely comfortable, but after talking and hearing everyone else speak, I am grateful to be in such a positive, passionate, and driven class. It's only the first day and I love it so much already. I can't wait for tomorrow! Unless it rains, then it can wait.

1 comment:

  1. A very nice blog, Zunarah. Informative and entertaining.

    ReplyDelete