I'm a Professional Model (Not!)

Needed to make sure the pole didn't go anywhere. 

I got to De Anza thinking I was early and was met with the rest of the ILCers and Don. I had never been to De Anza before today, and my mom was the one who spotted the ILC banner when she dropped me off. I knew I was at the right place when I could see Don's floral shirt from far away, the bright color made it easy to recognize, even without my glasses. I saw some people who I knew from my school and also met Cecilia, who goes to Pinole Valley and we started talking, she was super sweet and we got along really well. Some of the other ILCers trickled in and we walked inside the computer lab which was the Information Technology Academy at the school.

We didn't get started right away because there were a few technical difficulties with everyone having a secure connection to the internet, of course. Don's computer wasn't even able to be projected. After a lot of trial and error, everyone got started on Blogger. We were given the task to write a few paragraphs and I was vigorously typing away for the sake of making typing noises because that's all I heard coming from everyone else. We grabbed some snacks as Don was explaining common mistakes and what to look out for before we took a work break. 

Cameras were available for us to borrow as all the cohort members went outside to take some pictures that we could use. This was my favorite part of the day, it was so much fun modeling with Robson and Javaria as well as the other ILCers. We took pictures in front of the famous banner, the walls, and the stop sign. It was great practice in working with what we had and making the most of our surroundings. We got creative with where the light was best as well as how close someone was standing when taking the picture. It was great just spending time with everyone and cracking jokes since I was running out of poses. We agreed that Don was probably waiting before we headed back inside, getting some "candid" shots along the way.  

Thanks Raqeeb

We uploaded our pictures to MediaFire using card readers, which was new to some so we were helping each other out. I was just laughing at all my ridiculous poses and serious faces while attempting to model. We played around with adding them onto our blogs and I learned a lot about how to make them look more aesthetically pleasing. The practice blogs were hilarious, we all wrote about random things (snacks were especially popular) and we were able to get some feedback on errors we made and how to solve problems we ran into. Then we went over some of the fun stuff, like what we needed to bring when we headed back east, from a laptop security cable to a mesh vs. cloth laundry bag. We went around in a circle practicing locking and unlocking it and wrapping it up to put in the little bag it came in. 

I enjoyed meeting all the other ILCers and getting to know them, it's great because we're all going through this process together and I got to see the community I'm now a part of, a community I will grow with and I don't feel alone at all. It's reassuring to have so many people wanting the same thing as you and seeing how friendly this group is showed me that I'm in for something pretty amazing. Having a modeling session and constantly snacking on Twizzlers was just the beginning of this process, I'm certain we all have something that brings together this great group, and we'll be able to work around any obstacle which arises as we did today. 

The Cornell Gang.