"Failure is Impossible"

Andrew Gonzales
Day 3 (6-25-10)
Yesterday we were informed to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:15 a.m., to arrive in Rochester for a campus guide. Well, this morning at 7:30 Chris (my roommate) and I were still lying in bed knocked out, until one of our true friends, Jacky, knocked on our door and let us know how late we had slept in. We quickly brushed our teeth, threw on some clothes, and ran to the lobby to meet the group. As we were running down to the lobby, Chris and I thought we were going to be in big trouble. But Mr. Ramsey, and Mrs. Kaplan were both very understanding as to why we had over slept, seeing as to we had only gotten three hours of sleep. I would like to take this time to formally apologize on behalf of Chris and I to our chaperones and fellow Cornelian’s. Even though we were running behind our planned schedule, we arrived to the University of Rochester’s tour about an hour ahead of schedule.
While at the University of Rochester, we learned a lot of valuable information from an admissions officer by the name of Patrick O’Neill. It was a great experience to learn more about such a prestigious college. Though Rochester is a tear one school ranking up there with the Ivy Leagues, I had not heard about it before, and I don’t think many high school students have either. This is a prime example of why the Ivy League Connection should be sustained. After our informational session we had a tour guide around the beautiful campus. A former graduate of Kennedy High, who is now a rising sophomore at Rochester, joined us, and gave us great insight. The most impactful thing he said to me was, don’t wait for opportunities, go out and make opportunities for yourself.
While at Rochester, we met up with one of their admissions officers by the name of Haniya Selzer. She was very helpful on giving us tips as to what a college admissions officer looks at in a student. We accompanied her to a delicious lunch at the Dinosaur BBQ. I had a New York steak, it only seemed right seeing as to we were in New York. The meat was tender and juicy, but the only problem was they had no metal utensils so cutting the thick steak with a plastic knife presented a challenge. I definitely succeeded in overcoming this challenge because of pure hunger. We tried to finish our food quickly, so that we could go to the Erie Canal, but we just couldn’t make it, hopefully we can see this marvelous attraction another day. After exiting from lunch we saw an interesting waterfall. It just was so out of the ordinary from what we might see back at home.
With a full stomach we went to the house of one of the most famous Women’s suffrage leaders of all time, Susan B. Anthony. We took an amazing tour through her house, and personally I learned a lot about what rights women didn’t have in the earlier years of America. One thing that I learned was that if women had husbands, all of their money and possessions belonged to him. If a woman was not married, she would have more rights, so you could pick love, and happiness, or pride, and a little liberty. Susan B. Anthony worked alongside Frederick Douglas for equality of sexes and races. Susan B. Anthony said some profound words that were key to her success and resilient mentality, “Failure is Impossible.” Throughout the day I continued to remind myself of these powerful words.

After the lovely lunch we all headed back to Syracuse. We went to the Syracuse airport, which ironically we didn’t go to board a plane, but we went to pick up a larger rental car. While at the airport I bought an “I love New York” tee- shirt for my sister (Love you Bre). In the airport was a small play area designed for small children, even as mature as all of us in the ILC are, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity of playing a quick game of tag, sliding down the slide, and just having fun. I believe I can say that this was one of the most fun games of tag I’ve ever played.
We left the airport and went to our hotel room. We all got dressed up, and if I can say so myself, we looked good. We headed to the Scotch and Sirloin restaurant where we met Ms. Jill K. Schaffer, associate director of admissions at Cornell University. I was so thrilled to talk and get insight from Ms. Schaffer because tomorrow we will actually be on our way to Cornell! She gave me some assurance because she gave us her email to contact her while we are at Cornell, so she can arrange for us to meet different professors at Cornell, or just stop by to talk wither regarding what we chose.
I enjoyed all of today’s experiences, especially because we didn’t have to sleep on airport floor. I really do wish more teenagers in high school could have this same life changing experience.