by Nathan Bengtson
Today was a rather low-key day. Our schedule was one that allowed us quite a bit of free time and some time to sleep in if we so desired. Sleep is one thing that many of us do not get on a regular and consistent basis on this ride. I personally slept until about 11:00 am! Our only real obligation today besides preparing mentally for our next stops and working on presentations for our stops was to attend a 4-hour training put on by GLAAD for media purposes. I found the meeting to be interesting and a good practice of our skills when faced with an interview with the press. I felt as though GLAAD did a good job working with us to practice many of the skills that we have become somewhat comfortable doing with the media thus far. I thought the training was a good idea to prepare us all to be able to go to these schools and to speak with conviction and confidence. It brings our professional image to an even higher standard.
After our training was finished we all boarded the bus to have dinner at a local GLBT community center called The Tulsa Oklahoman’s Human Rights center (TOHR). TOHR was generous to provide us with two meals for the two nights that we stayed in Tulsa. The members of the center and several community members came to support us and to eat with us. Once dinner was over, we had the rest of the evening to ourselves. A group of us headed down to the restaurant in the hotel and socialized for a while before heading to bed. All in all, the day was rather chill.
Our stop in Tulsa was organized for the most part by myself and Rachel. I felt that our stop’s logistics went smoothly. The day we visited Oral Roberts was a bit hectic, but that can be expected. I think we handled the situation with cool, calm, confidence. That’s it for now.