It was orientation day and everyone looked exhausted from the long car ride here to Virginia Tech. We were all gathered at Litton Reeves auditorium to begin our orientation. As I looked around at my future roommates, classmates, and friends, I noticed the significant decrease in people from the previous Governor Schools I had seen. I began counting the number of heads in the audience, whispering it quietly in order to have an accurate count. Fifty people. It is an astonishing low number compared to the other Governor’s School programs that had a hundred plus people. With such little numbers, I wondered if I could even create any friends here.

I spent most of my time with the friends that had been accepted into Governor’s School with me which amounted to a friend group of four. In the first week, I would gravitate to the usual four, not making the effort to make any lasting friendships as I thought, “What was the point, I’m only here for a month”. We would do the activities together, sit together in our lectures, and I even had one of my close friends in my global seminar group. It was a perfect scenario for me, as Governor School was never thought to be a fun program for me as Agriculture reminded me of farming and animals, which I could easily achieve in Minecraft.

However, I was completely wrong, as the weekend activities progressed and I was inevitably introduced to several people here, I made friendships and memories that would last a lifetime. The daily volleyball two versus two we would play in the prairie quad and the short third floor lounge breaks that seemed so meaningless was my favorite routine and pastime here. Governor’ School for Agriculture was the most worthwhile summer program I could do and I am eternally grateful for the memories.