Going Beyond Basic

Waking up and starting the day was exhausting for me, mainly because I had Prom the previous night and remained awake later than I should have. I wearily put on my gray Draymond Green jersey from my favorite basketball team, The Golden State Warriors, with my all white Express jean jacket, dark blue jeans, and white leather Converse. Before making my way out the door, I grabbed my camera for the photography and blogging lesson in the tutorial. I stepped into the passenger’s seat of my mom’s car and headed off to De Anza High School where the tutorial was held at.

De Anza High School

By the time I finally broke out of my sluggish mood, we pulled up to the front De Anza at 7:45 AM. All of the cohorts were required to be there no later than 8:00 AM. Making sure I didn’t forget anything, I began walking toward the inside of the large school. It was overcast and cold outside; I was shivering under my jacket until I reached the computer lab where everyone was conversing with one another. Finding the room wasn’t hard, especially since there was an Ivy League Connection banner covering a generous part of the front gate and past it, the only room with its door propped wide open. I was the last one to walk through the door. Some of my fellow cohorts were staring at me as I did making me feel slightly awkward and embarrassed even though it was around 7:55 AM. I took a seat at one of the computers in the back next to one of my fellow cohorts almost tripping over the many wires on the ground belonging to a lot of the tech equipment and servers.

The tutorial opened with Don welcoming us and announcing the available snacks he had in case we got hungry. I was completely elated when I saw the Red Vines and chocolate chip cookies. My stomach was nearly punching out of me because of my unsettling hunger. I guess those are the consequences of not eating breakfast before a long day ahead. I grabbed a considerable amount of food and casually walked back to my seat. 

Sooner than I knew it, we were flying through the agenda with great ease until we began blogging due to problems with the computers not allowing us to sign in and unresponsive servers. After trying four different computers, I became a nuisance. I was the only person who hadn't blogged yet preventing everyone from continuing with the agenda. I ended up sharing computers with my friend Diana. 

In an effort to make up lost time we quickly moved on to learning techniques to take photos and uploading it to the blog. I whipped out my Nikon camera from my light blue and gray Adidas drawstring bag to find that it was unusable because it needed to be charged. Disappointed, I used another alternative to reaching the intended goal. Don, being the resourceful person he is, had flash drives with images for us to use in case we couldn't use a camera. Using one of those images, I was finally able to post my blog successfully and catch up with everyone else. 

The rest of the tutorial went by smoothly. We reviewed on our expected responsibilities and behaviors, future upcoming events, packing and borrowing items from Don, and asked any risen questions that came to us. All of us learned the basics of being an ILCer and I’m fully prepared for more to come.