Day 1 Orientation 6/5/13

Traveling to San Francisco to begin my Journey was a long process, but I was happy to arrive in the Bay Area. With a group of 34 other Pi Kappa Phi Brothers from across the country, I got settled into my hotel in Oakland, and began to starting getting to know the guys I will be spending the next 67 days with. 

I arrived at the hotel around 12:00 with my family, and right off the bat I was busy. As we go along, there are many sponsors, and other important people whom deserve recognition so we had to sign about 250 thank you cards each. We also picked up our jerseys, team T-shirts, and other items that were supplied by Push America. After that as a group we took our bikes out of the box they were shipped in and put them together. This was difficult but it was nice to see how the bike comes together and how everything works, especially since I am going to be spending so much time in the saddle. Once everyone got settled in, we began the icebreakers and getting to know each other activities, along with telling everyone what motivated us to sign up for The Journey of Hope. I explained that this cause means a lot to me, especially growing up with Lexie, and being around people with disabilities my entire life. It was very inspiring and interesting to hear everyone's stories, and what their motivation is behind wanting to embark on such a journey. Stories ranged from having family members that made them want to join, as well as guys just wanting to find themselves and push themselves to open up more. This made me very excited to get to know each of my teammates. 

The remainder of the day was pretty uneventful. As a team we had dinner together, and continued to bond and get to know each other. A few of us went out and walked around trying to find a conveinance store, which was much more difficult that we had hoped. We ended up walking 20 blocks away from the hotel to realize that every store was closed, and had been for over an hour. As it began to get later, we realized curfew was quickly approaching and it would be smart to get into bed and rest up for the next day. Once we got back, i hung out with my roommates for a while Blake from TCU, "Danja Doug", an Alumni from Northern Illinois University, and Saurabh from Miami University. It is great to meet guys from across the country and hear stories of why the decided to join Pi Kappa Phi. 

As the night came to an end, I started to think about the upcoming day and everything it was going to include. Along with continuing our orientation work, we were going to have our first friendship visit of the summer. 

Day 1 was great, and I look forward to establishing amazing relationships with all of these outstanding guys from across the nation.