Mama, I'm Going To College!

     College has always been such a stressful issue ever since I was very, very young. Both my brothers are much older than I am and just watching them go through the stressful process of college made me just as stressed. Ever since I was young, I’ve always wanted to achieve great academic and scholarly success, so I always aimed high.. even if they were unrealistic. My dream college when I was five years old was always University of California: Los Angeles. I loved the campus and the atmosphere, but more than everything, I loved the reputation that came with such a prestigious school.

         By the time I entered high school, I pretty much viewed school as a sets of tests that qualified you for college. High school was nothing more than a way to get you into college. The only thing worse than school was the SATs… the thing that so many juniors dread. My parents had spent more than $2,500 on preparing me for the SATs through SAT prep classes. Now that I think about it, those classes will not help you unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn. Even with all that money, I never got the scores that I would have liked, but I was the only one to blame since I hated those classes and I hated studying.

         When the summer of senior year came around, I just played and played and played instead of starting on college apps since this was the first summer I didn’t have SAT classes since 8^th grade. But when mid-September came, I suffered such an unbearable misery. I basically crammed all my apps and wrote all my essays within a week they were due. I decided to apply to 6 colleges: SDSU, CSULB, UCLA, UCD, Azusa Pacific University, and Biola University. I applied early for all my privates and heard back from all my colleges except UC’s by early February. Thankfully, every college I had back from, I received a letter of acceptance, but the one that mattered the most was Biola University, my top school. After thinking about it, UCLA was such an unrealistic goal for me and realized that I didn’t even want to go to a UC in the end anyways.

          On February 6, 2013, around 8:00pm, I had stepped out the shower and my dad told me that there’s a small envelope on the counter from Biola. I immediately felt nervous since I knew what the huge acceptance packet from Biola looked like. When I saw the printed hand on the outside of the packet, I immediately knew what it meant: I HAD GOT INTO BIOLA AND I WAS GOING TO COLLEGE!!!

         After all the stress and the hardships I went through, it was all over. I had got into college and I didn’t have to stress about it anymore. But a $45,000 tuition is not cheap and now begins the scholarship application process… it’s a never ending cycle for sure. 

Psalm 136: 1

"Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.."