By Tanner Greenwell
Bullitt Central High School
I can’t describe the feeling that overcame me when I first became aware that I had been selected as a Governor’s Scholar. I was unbelievably happy at first, but then I realized that since I was the only scholar chosen from my school, my best friend would not be going.
I didn’t know how to feel, but his optimistic attitude made it so much easier. He was just excited for me that I was chosen. He would always tell me that he was happy for me and that I would have the time of my life. I would argue and tell him how I would be dying to come home the whole time.
What I didn’t realize before I began my five-week residency on the Bellarmine University campus was how quickly and strongly the bonds of friendship could form in the Governor’s Scholars Program. And it is no accident that it happens.
The GSP is not solely an academic experience. It is the experience of building a community with the people that you meet there. It is the experience of forming relationships that can last a lifetime. I met people all of the time while I was there, but it took me a while to find my niche. A few of the guys on my hall and I became inseparable. We would hang out all of the time. We had a lot to talk about since we were all from different parts of the state; we would constantly compare each other’s hometowns.
During the last week of GSP, we decided that we didn’t want our days to end at the 11 p.m. curfew, when all students had to go to their rooms. So one day we moved four mattresses into a two-person dorm room. When our resident advisor found out, he wasn’t going to let us sleep five people in one room. So eventually we cut a deal with him: If I could beat him in a handstand pushup contest, he would let us all stay in one room.
We would have these little physical strength contests in our hall every night and the winner would always be me or him. So he made me go first and I did 14; he barely got eight. After that, we all crashed in the same room every night.
I really believe that staying in one room was a major benefit to our GSP experience. Aris Cedeño, executive director of the GSP, once said that the most important thing that we do here is build relationships. By the end of our five weeks at Bellarmine, we had learned almost everything about each other. We behaved as though we had been friends our whole lives.
The most important thing that I took away from my experience at GSP is the friends I made. I don’t mean friends like the people that I passed on the sidewalk and said hello to; I mean the people that I went to every activity with, the people that I ate every meal with, the people that stuffed four mattresses into a two-person dorm room so that we could stay up all night and hang out.
I walked away from the program with more than I ever expected I would. I had figured that it would be like five weeks of academic prison, but I was completely wrong. Now I am glad to have been selected for the GSP, because it allowed me to build some of the most important relationships of my life.
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