Going to N.Y. for the HerStory Summit by AnaMaría Ortiz

I remember the day I first found out about the trip. Sue pulled me out of an art workshop in the GLOW house and explained everything, I was thrilled. My friends who were going with me and I were exited, sometimes I couldn’t even sleep. I told my friends and my family and most of them didn’t believe me. For a little while I couldn’t believe it either and I actually started to think that it was all in my imagination. Many people say that I do have a very active imagination. But the morning we all meet up at the GLOW house at about 3:00am, was when I realized this was all real.

Most of the other girls were afraid; they had never been on a plane or been away from home for this long. I was ready for the adventure. When we arrived, the city was absolutely breathtaking; I had never seen buildings so big before. We stayed in a big hotel; our rooms were on the 20th floor and we had an amazing view of the city below us. When we went into the city we did many fun things like: having Chinese food in China town, visiting the Statue of Liberty, and riding on a double decker bus.

One of my favorite memories of New York was walking around in the freezing cold air; even though one day we went for ice cream. I also loved the interactive dances and storytelling with the girls we met who were from many different places. But my most favorite moment of all was the day when it started snowing. Almost all of us had been inside our hotel room all day doing homework when Abby, Christina, and Shalom came in with big smiles. They told us that when they got out of the bus it started snowing. When we finally got outside there was much snow. I imagined a giant blanket of snow reflecting the bright city lights like in the movies. There were barely any snowflakes but we still stood there and tried to catch them with our tongues. Most of all, I will never forget being in such an incredible city like New York with some of my favorite friends. I hope we all get another chance to go again and learn about girls from different cultures. One day I may even become a GLOW mentor and take young girls to incredible places to meet incredible people.