A very emotional day

September 6, 2013

Today almost everything revolved around group work and getting to know other people. We started out the day by participating in a waffle competition. Since the day before, I knew that we were going to make waffles with the first-years, but I didn't know it was going to be a competition for the best waffle. I got to be one of the group leaders, and had to create a team of five to six people, mixing second years with first years. So I recruited people and formed my team, which consisted of Javier T, Anja, Andrés, Mafer, and Mar. So we looked for a recipe, and started grabbing our utensils and ingredients. Well, we started out pretty well, although none of us had a lot of experience doing waffles, but about half way through we noticed that there were barely any toppings or extras for our waffles (no strawberries nor nuts left).  For this setback, we decided to mix some Nutella sauce into the waffle mix, I think this gave it a great flavor. Well, at the end, we didn't win, but we had some great tasting waffles and we learned a lot from each other. I think I bonded more with these newcomers and realized that they are actually really cool, and hopefully this was the start of a friendship.

After all of the chaos and fun of waffle making, it was time to work on my speech. I usually don't like asking for help, but I decided that I wanted my speech perfect so I went to Andrew for help. He recorded me while I told him my speech and I have to say that going for help was a great decision. I’m usually not that bad when I talk in public, but I realized that I do have a lot to work on; I needed to give my speech a little more emotion and work on my body language. I learned that in certain words, which are supposed to convey some sort of emotion, I have to actually sound like if I’m feeling it. Well, I think I improved some.

So the time to present our speeches came. The newcomers started with theirs, and I have to say that they were great. It seems like if they really worked hard and honestly on them. I even dare say that they were probably better than our dream speeches, and more moving, but this is probably because I missed the opening ceremony, so I didn't get to see my classmates give their speeches. The point is, that I really enjoyed their speeches. Now, when it came to our speeches, I almost cried in all of them. They brought back so many memories and really made me realize how everyone has improved personally. All of our speeches were great, and I also thought that everyone of us belonged in that stage, I mean wow; we can really handle that stage well. When it came to my speech, I think I handled it well, but I didn't know it was that emotional; apparently I made Bert, Javier and a couple others cry. I still don't know what caused them to react that way, but I guess I was able to convey those emotions, which I wasn't able to convey when I practiced.

Another thing that really moved me was that I realized that the newcomers really look up to us. I mean I think we really inspire them. I have heard comments here and there about how they think we are great, and how they want to be like us, the kind of students that we are and the relationship that we have as a group, that of a family. It actually feels really good for them to think that about us, but I know that they are going to be just like us, or even better. They still have a long way, but I am sure that they are going to achieve great things.