Departure Under the Sun

It was Wednesday morning and one by one they pulled up to El Cerrito High School looking like they desperately needed more sleep.  Milani was even carrying her pillow know full well she’d be using it as soon as she got on the plan taking her and her fellow Columbians to New York City.

Maybe it was the sadistic side of me but I reminded them that they were the only set of ILCers who had a departure while the sun was up.  They were told to arrive by 7:30 for an 8:30 departure to the airport.  All of our other contingents had a 3:15 date with ECHS.

Sleepy as the may have been they all arrived plenty early (I was so proud of them all) so we could hand out the loaner items they needed and weigh their luggage.

We had a celebrity in our midst this morning.  Even though the airlines allow a check-on bag to weigh 50 pounds we advise our ILCers to try to limit themselves to 42 pounds to leave room for souvenirs and books that they might pick up while back East.  We usually buy them a sweatshirt and that can easily weight 2 pounds right there.  Add a book or two—which the Presidential Powers students will have plenty of—and you can easily see the need for some wiggle room in the luggage.

About that celebrity: Eric Wang.  Eric is the new record holder for the person whose luggage weighed the least.  Last year Stephanie Chan’s bag weighed in at 23 pounds but Eric’s weighed in at 22.8.  Yes, Eric may be slight of build so his clothes actually weigh less than my 3XLT shirts/jackets/sweats, but still—the bag itself had to weigh at least 5 pounds.  All I can suggest is that he may be wearing the same outfit every day and washing them every night.

Prolonged hugs and teary eyes were the order of the day from both the parents and the youngsters.  They all bravely boarded the airport shuttle and off they went with plenty of time to spare—especially considering that their plane was more than a half hour late in taking off.  My job is to get them on the shuttle and whatever happens to them after that is out of my hands and someone else’s responsibility.  When they shed those tears when they departed, not a single tear was shed because they were going to miss me so as long as nothing really bad happens to them then I’m not going to fret too much when their plane is late.  As my father used to tell me when things like this happened: “it builds character, son.”