Its not that I don't look forward to college or anything, I mean I did get into the university of my choice which is UCLA, but after getting accepted you have to really decide what it is exactly that you want to do for the rest of your college career.
But hold on lets take it back to the days in which I was applying. *rewinding
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Being the first from my family to attend college I had no idea how the application process was. I figured it was just like applying to High School; as you can tell I did not put much thought into it before. But unfortunately it is not that easy. You have to go through all of your past academic records (just High School for others Middle School) and for each education institution there is a slightly different process, ex: community colleges, UC's, Privates, and Cal-States.
You also need to write about yourself. Which was extremely difficult for me. Asides from the struggle about writing about my life to these higher ed schools I had to be following a specific prompt and number of words at the same time which became overwhelming to little senior me in HS. To some it may have been easier but I take writing about myself pretty difficult because I have no idea how to describe myself in a way that may be appealing to others while at the same time not having to sound grossly conceited. Keep in mind adults are reading these statements and it takes 2 of them to like what you wrote and agree that you are a decent student to accept... so... no pressure, right?
I have no idea how but I stuck through it and sat down to write about myself in 1,000 words or less. After all I was not going to just give up on my last year of High School. I had a lot of people review my essays (people I trusted and some teachers) which helped quite a lot since I had read previous essays by admitted students who wrote flawless personal statements and I wanted mine to be just as good or even better. After spending blood, sweat, tears and hours of revising and rewriting I finally got to a point where I felt confident about them. I had one of my teachers read them, and for some reason they always found something wrong with one of my endings or a sentence that they disliked. I did not have anything against them, or them against me but I personally felt very comfortable with what I had written because I felt that it all tied everything I had to say together. So being a 'rebel' I decided to ignore their feedback and stick to what I felt was necessary to leave in my personal statement and submit it that way. *I would not recommend this unless you are positive and passionate about what you wrote*
I dont even want to get into the financial part of it when applying because it is quite stressful. The people who already attend college would know. {Ill post links below for assistance if applicable, :) }
Anyway I ended up receiving quite a handful of acceptances but none of them stood out to me. I had applied because it was required by my school but I never really cared... as awful as that may sound. Now how did I know that UCLA was the school for me? Well that was when I was sitting at my computer waiting for an email on March 23 anxiously to know whether I had been worthy enough as a student to gain a spot. I had never been so nervous in my life as geeky as that sounds haha. And once I found out I was so overly excited and happy to know I was admitted I... cried. Especially after getting a call from my best friend from middle school, who was attending a different HS, giving me the news that she had been admitted as well which made things even more exciting.
Anyway little did I know that with college there also comes a lot of expenses. (Well I did know, but Hey I'm barely 18, I don't know how to handle big numbers wisely enough esp. when it comes to money)
and being part of the 99% of the people in the US who are not extremely wealthy.. I hate it.
Therefore, lately I have had terrible anxiety where there are days in which I cant sleep. (I might do a post on this later on).
But overall I had orientation = sesh 107 (whoop), which was all kinds of things from FUN to stressing with schedule planning but mostly fun I would say. I got to meet a lot of different people from the States and everyone was super friendly.
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Now going back to the beginning of this post. Even though I STILL do not know exactly what I want to be or doing 5-10 years from now I will go to college because I feel that it would not be fair to my parents for me to leave school since they are the ones who have worked so hard for me and whom have supported me throughout my entire life to receive a higher education.
Quite frankly I have had moments in which I think to myself is it really necessary? To spend so much money on college when I have no idea what I want to be? I enjoy writing. Therefore, changed my major to English, but I don't want to be a teacher.. which is what many people think of right off the bat. Would it be easier to just work and then come back to receive an education? What if you don't want to be a doctor or teacher and just want to be an actor/actress for example. Im pretty sure you don't need to go to college for that and you can be making pretty good money IF successful. And then there are always those 'what if's. Those kinds of questions roam my head once in a while and I know there are scholarships available for the payments of college and all but I sometimes feel that all of that is a drag when you don't know what it is that you want to do at 18. It is even more confusing when people say that it is important to pursue what makes you happy.
Don't get me wrong though, college sounds exciting and fun because there is SO much that I have yet to discover :) but as a 'young adult' I feel it to be quite overwhelming and scary, since I come from such a small HS.
Ill post more on what I will be doing in college.
But for now that is all I wanted to share. Maybe Im weird and nobody relates.. or maybe some people do.
Thanks for reading! (✿◠‿◠)
College planning related links:
http://www.actstudent.org/college/applying.html
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/make-a-plan
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/financial-aid
Search more of me :)
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