In April, precisely the day before my Birthday, I received an email from the American University of Rome telling me I had been accepted.  I was ecstatic!  The thing is, I’ve been attending a community college for four years, FOUR YEARS!! And there really is nothing wrong with that, it just took me a while to realize it.  We’re always comparing ourselves to others, and I tend to compare myself to high school friends who are going to Universities or who have already graduated.  It used to put me down, but I thought to myself, we all have a different story. My story is, I work a lot, my family life isn’t perfect, and it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with school.  Others have parents who provide for them, they might not have jobs, and they probably have a lot of time for school life.  We’re different.  Some of us work harder than others and some are just lucky enough to have people to help them out.  

Anyway, as an Italian Studies and International Relations major, it was a no-brainer that I’d definitely be attending AUR, then my birthday came.  My mom and younger sister were in town, and we were all going to a family dinner (this is when I would tell them I would be moving to Rome in the beginning of 2015).  We were all getting ready to leave when I received 2 separate emails from UC Davis and UCLA…I had been accepted by them too!  No offense to UC Davis, but I think I was more shocked and excited about UCLA.  First of all, let me just say, I’m not as intelligent as I may seem…I won’t even pretend to be.  I’m witty sometimes, creative and driven but I wouldn’t consider myself intelligent.  So the fact that I, a girl with a GPA just below a 3.0 with 4 years into a community college, got accepted to UCLA, was just unbelievable and overwhelming.  I can promise you it was my personal statement that got me accepted.  I have to admit, it was pretty damn well written, I poured my heart out with less than 500 words.

I kind of wanted to cry from excitement, so I told my parents about UCLA and UC Davis , but I told them I had already been accepted to a few other schools as well.  I really wanted to wait until we got to dinner to tell them the big news.   We get in the car and my dad starts telling me (in spanish of course), “That’s the school you’re gonna go to- UCLA”, like he was making the decision for me. Then my sister decides to ruin the big news by telling everyone, “She got accepted to Rome and has already made her decision to go there”.  Umm, what fuck just happened?  I thought I was going to tell them!  So we’re all crammed in a small car, my dad looks like he’s about to have a heart attack, my mom looks like she wants to cry, while my younger sister is trying to brush off all the awkwardness.  Too many emotions going on, I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

 I mean, I thought I  had already made my decision, but in reality, I was kind of stuck in the middle.  Going to Italy my dream country, or staying in my beloved home city and going to a GREAT school.  It took me about a week of anxiety and over-thinking to realize that the decision had been made long before; I not ONCE talked about going to UCLA, I was always babbling on about wanting to live in Italy and how anxious I was to be accepted to The American University of Rome.  My dream was always to go to Italy!  Traveling WHILE studying?  That’s my dream!  And I always tell people to follow their dreams, so I’d be a complete hypocrite if I passed up the opportunity. 

Well, my blogposts almost always have a lesson right?  I guess this one would be to follow your dreams.  It might be scary and unpromising but I believe that there’s a plan.  I’m not religious, so I don’t necessarily think God has a plan for me, but I do believe the Universe has a plan for me (as stupid as that sounds).  Life has a plan.  I’m not even mad anymore about having been at a community college for four years.  If I would’ve graduated from PCC within 2 years and transferred, I would’ve never found out about my passion for Italian, I wouldn’t have met my friend Jessa, and she would’ve never told me about the American University of Rome.  So there you go, there’s a purpose for everything…now get going and find a purpose, or better yet, do what you love and your purpose will reveal itself to you!

 

P.S.  I believe I haven’t found my purpose in this world, but I also believe that by doing what I love, my purpose in this world will become clear.  It might take days, it might take months, it might even take years for that to happen, but in the meantime I’ll keep doing what I do best, learn languages and travel.  It’ll come to me, I just know it! ❤

 

Love,

The Wanderluster