Food, Vanderbilt University, and Red Sox

Last night was the night of the dinner for the Chicago and Vanderbilt cohorts. It started off normal enough- with my dad and I showing up over an hour early because we feared traffic and being late. I am not going to lie, I felt really silly showing up this early and then sitting in the parking lot for 40 plus minutes waiting for everyone else to show up so we could walk to where we were meeting. But that is neither here nor there. Everyone showed up on time thankfully and we were able to catch the direct train to San Francisco to go to the restaurant. On the train I spoke with a girl from the Chicago cohort named Lindsay Long about various movies and books, as well as shared complaints about teachers at our school. Good times, eh?

Once we got to San Francisco, I was pretty shocked. I’m not really used to big cities, because all my family lives in rural areas and then I live in a small town myself, so it was a bit of a shock. All the buildings were so tall I had a crick in my neck every time I tried to look up at them. My dad pointed out a building someone he knows is working on, which was sort of cool.

The restaurant itself was very small compared to everything else I had seen beforehand in the city, to be quite honest. We walked up the stairs to get to our dining room and we started off by having conversation in the…lobby...? Hall? I wouldn’t know the proper word for it. Lindsay, Evan, Cameron, and I got into a conversation with a man named Christopher Dewing, a Chicago alum who works for a mobile game platform called Skillz. He told us about how his job works and it was very interesting to hear about algorithms and testing that goes into these games.

At the table I was seated at I was with Evan and his father, Eppa Rixey and Tori Wycoff, the co-presidents of the Vanderbilt alums of the Bay Area, Madeline Kronenberg, a member of the WCCUSD school board, Kevin, a former ILCer who now attends Cal, and then Dad.

I was the person that was chosen to speak for my cohort during the speech portion of the dinner, and I think I left a pretty good impact on those that were there. I was a little nervous in general, but overall I was OK. The speech seemed to be the easy part of the night, honestly, because actually sitting at the table and talking took my dad a push or two to get me going. But once I was going, I was going, and I learned a lot about Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and how to get good with the schools from Eppa, as well as some facts about his own life.

Did you know Eppa’s great-grandfather was a Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher for the Red Sox? I didn't until I met him.

I know, very small point, but it was still very interesting. Aside from that fact, I learned Vanderbilt has been completely overrun by squirrels to the point they introduced hawks and owls to handle the problem, and they are extremely experience- and personality-based in their selections for applicants, among many other things I am grateful to know now.

Great shot of the salad course of the meal. Spring mix, walnuts, Asian pear, and balsamic vinaigrette. :)

The food was absolutely amazing. I was actually impressed because normally I eat food other than what is made by my dad and think "This isn't as good as Dad's" in the back of my mind, but this time that didn't even cross my mind. Personally my favorite part was the dessert, but hey, that's everyone's favorite, am I right? Haha.

Then we went outside to take pictures with the alums and Don was disappointed about the fact the boulder he normally took pictures in front of was surrounded by construction work so he couldn't take a picture in front of it this year. But other than that and it being extremely cold and windy to me (try wearing a sun dress in that weather! Yikes!) pictures went very smoothly.

This is what you will find when you look up "squad goals" on Urban Dictionary

The last cool thing of that night was that I found out was that Jennifer Hansen, my chaperone, is my best friend's French teacher at De Anza. It was very fun to find out and my friend made several jokes about how I had to help persuade Ms. Hansen into giving her an A in the French class when I texted her later on in the night as I was doing my homework.

All in all, this was a very good experience and I had a lot of fun! I learned a lot, met some really cool people, and gained a lot of confidence of being among everyone. Thank you all for a great night!