June 1st. It's supposed to be the start of a new month, like the birth of summer supposedly. Really, what student doesn't look forward to hearing that June had rolled around? It either means you're already out of school or you’re on the brink of ending school and that is much more exciting than presents on Christmas!

But for me, it was one of the saddest days of my life.

Because it was on June 1st 2009 that the JRYC had its last meeting of the year.

It was on June 1st 2009 that I graduated from my two years on the Jade Ribbon Youth Council.

It’s one of the those things that you try to prepare yourself from crying, but when you begin to remember, or when you realize that you’re losing a part of who you are, you cry anyways.  To be completely honest, I cried last year when my beloved friends of the past JRYC graduated, and I cried even harder on the drive home this past Monday.

The people I’ve met, the stories I’ve heard, the experiences that I have gained are irreplaceable. The smiles, the laughter, there isn’t a single moment I’ve spent on the council that I regret, nor is there a memory that isn’t bright associated with the JRYC.  From meetings, to screenings, to the Tet Festival, to the Chinese New Year Festival, to city proclamations, to Hepatitis B Awareness Week, to the Youth Leadership Conference, 2 years have gone quickly but overflow with such sweet recollections.

I keep wondering what I will do with my Mondays, how they will never been the same seeing those familiar faces.  I know I’ll miss, as Dylan, a former member of the JRYC who graduated last year, used to say, all the “inside-jokes” and desperately hold onto the ones I have. And since I’m off to college on the East Coast, I won’t have the luxury of traveling every month back to the Asian Liver Center to see how all my JRYC babies are progressing.

But then I realize I’m acting as if I’ve lost something, as if someone’s ripped out an important part of my heart and has kept it hostage in front of my eyes. And yet that’s not true at all.

Because, I haven’t lost the Jade Ribbon Youth Council and I’m not ever going to.  I can’t even begin to list all the happy memories being on the council have graced me with.  Or what it has done for me in the past two years.

Being on the council has made me more proficient in foreign languages. I’ve learned how to put together an entire event, not just as a leader, but just as part of an equal team.  It’s opened my eyes to a plight that has been blind-sighted, and handed me the skills to open the eyes of so many others. It’s made me confident enough to make a fool of myself in front of unknown high school peers and yell in an old Cantonese, unemployed male persona.

And someone I’ve managed to become the Council’s official photographer, though to be honest, it was the Jade Ribbon Youth Council that made me love photography even more and I’m not that fantastic at it.

It’s given me life-long friends, it’s given me perspective, it’s given me a family, and most importantly, it’s given me a cause to believe in.  And these are all points of character that can’t easily be taken from me as they’re who I am now.

So to my JRYC family, I want you to always remember how much I love each and every one of you and that no amount of words can express how wonderful you’ve made these past two years.

And know this, no matter what I do at U Penn or where the future might take me, you’ll always be in my heart and thoughts.

Always.

So to all of you on the JRYC and ALC, my eternal love and wishes. This past year with the current council has been more fantastic for me than you can imagine and to my seniors who I’ve known for these past two, some two and a half, years: the moon and the stars in your reach for the future.

Infinitesimal love,

Elisabeth Sum

Liz

Monte Vista High School '09

U Penn Jerome Fisher '13