When I got my acceptance letter to the Medill cherubs program, let’s just say I screamed. A lot. But, my excitement was soon followed by nerves and thoughts ran incessantly through my head. Would everyone be nice? Would they all be super good journalists? Will I be the worst journalist there?

Two days later, one of the other girls who had been accepted into the program set up the 2011 Medill Cherubs Facebook group.

When I was added, there were only nine other journalism cherubs in the group.

At first, everyone just introduced themselves and said how excited they were to meet everyone else. But as June 26 drew closer, and the number of people joining the group increased, the comments about our excitement grew too and that made us closer.

I was a little annoyed when some 2010 Medill cherubs joined, because I felt they were intruding on what was supposed to be our page. But I quickly realized how excited they made me. That small group of past journalism cherubs kept posting how much fun last year was and how much they missed everyone. I knew my experience would be the same.

Because of that group, when I walked in East Fairchild on the first day, I was able to go up to another member and say, “Hey, do you remember me? I was in the group.”

A bunch of the 2011 Medill cherubs didn’t know about the group until after the program started, and they made friends just fine. But I would like to believe being a part of the Facebook group helped make my Medill cherubs experience even better.