FEBRUARY 26, 2013
I was having some serious trouble trying to come up with a title for this blog post. First, I thought I’d name it “A Perfect Day”, but, then I thought that “A Perfect Day” wasn’t good enough. This day was more than perfect. After trying to find the best word that would describe the way I felt, I realized my feelings for it are unexplainable. The reason for “February 26, 2013” is because I will forever remember everything that happened to me on this day. I knew that February 26th would be a great day for me, but I definitely wasn’t expecting just how great it actually was. Let’s rewind to a week before the 26th.
I was doing my nightly check of the 7-day weather forecast and noticed that we were supposed to get rain on that special day. This couldn’t happen. February 26th was the day I was going to receive the Star Award from Bryant University, and the last thing I needed was for Mother Nature to literally rain on my parade. Not only that, I had a friend of mine’s video production company, CineStories, coming in to film me around Bryant. So, rain definitely wasn’t an option. Low and behold, when I woke up that morning the sun was shining through my window and I took it as a sign.
We started filming part one at Bryant around 11 am. The thought of having someone follow me around with a camera all day was a little intimidating, but I was so excited nonetheless. They interviewed friends, family, professors, and pretty much captured a day in the life of Alyssa Silva. It was great. I felt so comfortable with them there, which was something I was not expecting in the beginning. I guess you could say I’m not very "smooth", and I’m bound to find myself in at least one embarrassing situation per day. So, as you might expect, the last thing I wanted was to have my embarrassing moment caught on film! But, thankfully, everything remained normal and we had so much fun. After filming throughout the morning and early afternoon, the guys from CineStories followed me to the reception where I was going to receive my award.
The award reception was just for me, and I was ecstatic to see my friends, family, Bryant faculty, and past and present teachers there. In fact, I was the first-ever recipient to receive the Star Award. The Star Award is presented to someone who best exemplifies Bryant University’s mission which is achieving academic success in addition to demonstrating character and leadership. How awesome is that? I still can’t believe that I was chosen to receive such a remarkable award! While I was there listening to the speeches given by my parents, brother, best friend, Bryant faculty members, and the president of the university, I told myself to remember every single detail of that day. I realized in that moment that days like those don’t happen too often, but when they do, you have to cherish them for all it’s worth. It was such honor to receive an award like that, and everything about the event was beyond perfect. I will never forget February 26, 2013.
I have so many people to thank for making that day truly unforgettable for me. Most importantly, I have to thank Judy Farrell for planning the entire reception on her own. I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out on the 26th. Everything down to the sign outside that said “Alyssa Silva Reception” put a huge smile on my face. I’ve known Judy for 5 years now, and she has done everything in her power to make sure my time at Bryant has been better than I could’ve imagined. And for that, I will be forever grateful. Also, I surely have to thank CineStories for coming out and capturing every moment from that day. I’m so glad that they’re all so willing to create a mini-documentary of my life, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product. Can’t wait to start filming part two!
