Catch Me, If You Can.

Entry 11

I'll admit, I used to hate the idea of college. Well, until I truly gave it a chance and completely fell in love. Like, head over heels in love.

As a senior in high school, I've been stressed enough. Summer homework, Four AP classes, sports, trying to deal with drama and personal issues; its been a hell of a journey. College was honestly the last thing I wanted to think about, let alone deal with.

Since it's literally in my DNA that I would procrastinate to the last minute about everything, the college application experience is something I never want to do again. November came around and I barely knew where I wanted to go to college. As a person who gets anxious over being stressed, I could never definitively make up my mind about what colleges I wanted to apply to, and I constantly doubted my decisions, I doubted myself. I honestly wanted to scream the whole month of November, thinking about it now still makes me feel sick. Okay, deep breaths, happy thoughts. 

As of November 29th, I had applied to six colleges, all in Southern California, where I lived. I applied to two University of California (UC) schools: San Diego and Santa Barbara, two California State Universities (CSU): Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach, and three private schools: University of La Verne, Pepperdine University, and Chapman University. And, at that point, I didn't really cared where I was going, it was just nice to be done with all of it. I was sick of talking about college; I hated the idea of talking and thinking about it. It was annoying to me, and I started questioning if I really wanted to go, because the application was so bad I felt like I had no motivation to do another college thing.

Thankfully, the feeling went away. After being accepted by all 6 colleges, some with scholarships, I was excited again. Being acknowledged for my hard work in high school was a pivotal point in my senior year, it was a much needed confidence booster. I felt good enough, and this force pushed me to continue doing my best, even though I relentlessly told myself that I had given up (and legitimately meant it). 

Where am I now? Pretty good, if I do say so myself. As of April 29th (exactly 5 months after finishing the dreaded applications), I committed to the University of La Verne, where I will take on Journalism as an Honors student. As of today, I have 10 days until my high school graduation, where I will graduate with an Honors GPA of a 4.54, which ranks me as 25th out of my senior class of over 500. I don't usually brag much but I worked extremely hard so I'm gonna take the chance to be proud, thank you very much.

As for La Verne, I start in August. And I am E C S T A T I C to begin. I am more than ready for this adventure now. Moving up to Los Angeles to pursue something that truly makes me happy is nearly all I could ask for. It's new, it's different, and I'm sure it's going to be an eye opening experience. I am entering a new world, a new chapter in my life, and I could not be looking forward to it more.

It's worth the applications, it's worth the studying and projects and grades. I promise you, just suck it up and do it. Try your best, you'll thank yourselves (and me for inspiring you with my wise experiences) later.

Continue kicking ass, guys.

Andrew out.