Sunday, July 12, 2015

To Wrap It All Up

"How long were you gone?" asked my friends. Well to me it felt like a day, but in reality, 26 days. 26 days of fun, hard work, and laughter. This trip can't be explained in words. I will try my best to describe my experience at Cornell. However, the events that have occurred this past month, are something that one would have to be there to understand it all. 
As I woke up this morning, I grabbed my phone expecting to see messages from my cohort and friends asking what we were going to do today. Sadly, I realized that everyone was back at home, snuggled in their beds just as I. In three weeks, relationships could grow fast and become strong. 

Being up everyone morning at 6 o'clock sharp and not going to bed until 3 o'clock could take it's toll on a person. However, it did not stop me from being able to push myself to complete this program. I was not forced to stay up so late or forced to work as hard as I did, I chose to. I decided that I was going to balance my social and study life for my stay at Cornell. If I chose to focus on my studies, I would have been able to sleep at a decent hour, but that would ruin the opportunity to meet new people. Putting aside an hour or two to spend time outside of class with my friends made this trip that much more special. To me, I thought losing a couple hours of sleep was worth it. I would never get another opportunity like this anytime soon and the program was only three weeks.

Ivy League Connection Cornell Cohort 2015

Spending time with my friends after class meant that all my studies had to happen late at night. I was fine with this and I pushed myself to finish all assignments, study for all my tests, and most importantly, blog. Having an experience like this gave me a chance to experience how Junior year was going to look like. Now when I return to school for eight hours, I can ask, "That's it?" When my teacher assigns a ten page essay, I can question, "Only ten?" 

Hotel Management gave me an experience I will never forget. The long hours of lectures and office hours to the presentations that made everyone nervous. This does not sound like fun, but it was. It gave me the opportunity to expand on my teamwork skills and public speaking. Mark, one of two professors, taught us how to make Word templates for future letters, reports, or papers. Reneta taught us the many different hotels and how difficult it is to run and operate a single hotel. Last but not least, the amazing TA's who stayed with us everyday to the last minute of office hours, answering all of our questions. 

Hotel Management class of 2015

This trip was not all about Cornell. Before arriving in Ithaca, my cohort and I explored three different colleges, Emory, Georgetown, and UPenn. Now that I have explored these different campuses, I narrowed down what I look for in my future college. As I went on the campus tours and listened in on their lectures, I found the universities personal strengths and weaknesses. At Cornell, I was able to experience the life of a college student. In my opinion, Cornell is a great school that I will consider when I apply. The staff is amazing and there is so much to do inside the small town of Ithaca. 

My trip overall created some of the best memories I will never forget. I have enjoyed my time at Cornell and wish to one day experience it again. 

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