Over my two week vacation this summer, I spent a large amount of my time relaxing on the beach tanning, reading and writing story drafts for this paper. I was so excited to come home and publish the stories I had been working on and make up for the months I hadn?t submitted anything.
But then I got home, and I got one of the most important phone calls of my life.
On July 20th, I found out that I had gotten off the waitlist at Scripps College-my dream school- and was offered a position in their class of 2013. Well, as exciting as this was, the moment was bittersweet as I found myself making one of the most difficult decisions of my life.
Last April, I was disappointed to be have been waitlisted at 5 out of the 8 schools I applied to. Having been rejected, waitlisted and not given enough money, I felt I had no other choice than to go to the UW, a great school don?t get me wrong, but just too close to home. I was so jealous of my peers who were going across the country into the great unknown; I already knew the UW area like the back of my hand.
But over the course of the next few months, I had come to embrace the idea of going to the UW. Sure it?s a huge school with enormous lecture halls, but it is also the 41st best national University in the country. I could study Norwegian (I am very close to my father?s family in Norway, and visit them often), go to school with some of my best friends, easily mooch off my parents and could grab 24 hour Mexican on the Ave whenever I wanted. I grew to like the idea of going to the UW.
And then I got the phone call. Going to Scripps would change things, things that I had not mentally prepared myself for. I had already accepted that Seattle would be my home for the next four years, that I wouldn?t have to say goodbye to my friends and family and that I would be able to go home if I forgot to bring that one ugly sweater for the ?ugly sweater? party.
If I chose to go to Scripps, I would live in Claremont California, just 40 miles east of LA. I would leave home a month earlier than I would have started classes at UW. Living somewhere I don?t know, living people with I don?t know, would change the person I am to become.
I am so organized, that when things don?t go to plan I am caught by surprise, and don?t know how to handle the situation. I thought long and hard about this decision, and found myself on a roller coaster ride of emotion. Scripps was too great an offer to give up; I would receive such a great education in small classrooms, while at the UW I could easily go unnoticed if I wanted to. But I was torn; I was just so ready for the UW.
I have decided to go to California, not only because of the aforementioned positives, but also because it is one of the most spontaneous things I have ever done. Going somewhere at such short notice to an unfamiliar area where I know barely anyone will be good for me, and help prepare myself for the future, when things often don?t go as planned.
I have less than a month to prepare to drive south. I have nothing for my dorm, don?t even know what it looks like or how big it is and haven?t cleaned out my closet.
Normally these things would stress me out, and I would feel the need to finish these tasks as soon as possible, but surprisingly I find myself calm and collected, though I have no idea what is to come. For once in my life I am expecting the unexpected.
For now, I may take the odd trip to Ikea or Bed Bath and Beyond to check out some dorm stuff, but I also want to spend as much time with family and friends that I never thought I had to leave, and say goodbye to this beautiful area.
You may find me sunning myself at Logboom, buying artwork for my dorm in Pike Place, or maybe having a picnic at Gasworks as I bid farewell to the place that has over these past years become my home.
