If you had told me last July that I:

1) Would get waitlisted from my state school

2) Would get into a t20

3) Would have to turn down said offer

4) Commit to one of the US's biggest party school that's across the country

I would have called you a lunatic. Yet, here I am in that situation.

I think the mess started in February when financial packages starting coming out and I realized that college was fucking expensive. I panicked and applied to one of the state schools I crossed off my original list because it was too far from home. ( I submitted my application from my phone while sitting in my car) I got accepted a week later with a full ride, which was nice, but it was still a last resort. Then, I started getting decisions back from all the match schools I had gotten deferred from: waitlist, after waitlist, after waitlist.

My ego was destroyed at this point. So in early April, when I went to open my final decision, I knew I was going to open a rejection. Then the confetti came down my screen. I read the entire letter before I did anything just in case they were playing some sort of joke. I screamed, ran around my house, and called my sister. The high lasted until I checked the cost: $80k. There's no way I can fathom putting that burden on my parents or my future self so it was out of the picture.

So, I bought a shirt with the logo of the "last resort" school, joined the incoming class's facebook group, and my family booked plane tickets to fly out and see the campus. I can't believe I'm done with this process, and, honestly, I'm excited to see what college has in store for me. The past year has been filled with disappointments, surprises, and gifts, and this sub really helped me through all of it.

Thank you to all of you for being so supportive through the toughest year in college admission history <3