Around this time last year I was a nervous wreck.
The Catholic high school I attended was relatively small, with only 370 students in my graduating class. Not only did everyone know each other, but everyone knew each other’s personal business and college decisions were no exception. I was never one to advertise my accomplishments, but that definitely didn’t prevent my acceptances from becoming public knowledge, too. As May approached, teachers and peers alike were all too frequently giving me opinions I didn’t ask for. When I first got the Trustee Scholarship from BU, the general consensus was that I’d be a fool to turn down a full-ride, especially to an out-of-state school (95% of my classmates stayed in Florida.) By the start of April, though, everyone was pushing me to say yes to an Ivy.
While I appreciated the support and concern, I knew the decision was one only I could make. I narrowed my top choices down to BU and UPenn, whose Open House days happened to be the same weekend, and planned a trip with my mom and sister.
First stop: Beantown.
I remember landing in Logan Airport and feeling an odd sense of comfort, as if I’d made the trip so many times before. It had actually been about a year since my last
(and first) visit to Boston, when I came to BU for a two-week journalism program. I honestly never expected to be back on this campus.
That Friday, I attended an event for Trustee recipients. Meeting both the upperclassmen and prospective scholars like myself was an eye-opening experience. I realized that BU is truly composed of an international community of students with all kinds of interests. After hearing what some of the other Trustees were studying or had done in high school, part of me even felt unworthy of being one of them.
It wasn’t until the next day, however, when I attended COM Open House, that I realized maybe I could pass as a Terrier. As I sat in Tsai auditorium that morning and listened to all the COM Ambassadors introduce themselves on stage, I realized they were the kinds of students I both wanted to be and wanted to be surrounded by. All of them appeared so confident, passionate, and charismatic. Moreover, it seemed as if COM had helped all of them solidify what they wanted to do in the future, something I had struggled to determine while filling out my college apps. When we walked to the next presentation, my mom and sister agreed that they could see me as a CA one day. As much as I hoped they were right, I really never thought they would be.
It’s therefore crazy to me that in a few days I’ll be introducing myself on the Tsai stage. And that I’ll be answering questions about COM rather than asking them. And that I interned for Claudia’s show on WTBU last semester when she was the one who first showed me the station at Open House. And that L.E. and I give tours together each week when I chose her to be my CA last semester because I remembered her saying she was from Florida at Open House. AND THAT I’M A COM AMBASSADOR AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY.
All because last April my very perplexed, senior-in-high-school self decided to attend COM Open House. If that’s not the greatest decision I’ve ever made, then cancelling my trip to UPenn the next day is.
(My mom may or may not have forced me to take this, okay?)
