Some decisions are very easy to make. For example, it's easy to decide to turn right if I see traffic to the left. Decisions like that are based off of clear evidence laid out in front of you. However, some decisions are very difficult to make. Deciding on what to eat for dinner can be very difficult ... especially if you are indecisive like I am. Other difficult decisions: deciding on what movie to watch with my group of friends or deciding on what to wear to an important event.
Making these decisions and coming down to the best possible option is always very taxing. Still, maybe you have yet to make the most important decision of your life. Or perhaps you have already made the decision, and you are currently realizing why everything you did has led you to these exact moments in your life.
You might be confused as to what I'm talking about.
I'll tell you. College. It is probably the single most important decision you will make because it shapes the rest of your future. What sucks about tough decisions is that there are a number of determining factors that produce different outcomes.
College is no different. You have to decide where you feel the most comfortable, where you can envision yourself walking across the graduation stage after the next four years, or however long it takes to pursue your degree. You have to find the college that fits the major you want to pursue. What region of the country do you want to go to school in? Do you want a small college town, or do you want to go to a school in a big city? Are sports important to you? What about recruitment? These are all factors that could potentially make or break your college decision.
For me, the process was no different. I had to ask myself all of those questions and I arrived at the best possible solution that fit my needs in a university. It just so happened that my choice was the same exact choice my older sibling made just a few years earlier.
Now let me preface this by saying how different my older sister and I are. She is quiet and reserved, and I am the "wild child" of the family. But that didn't seem to matter when I made my college decision.
In fact, I can name at least 15-20 of my friends off the top of my head that made the same decision to follow their siblings to their respective schools.
Growing up I never thought in a million years that we would choose the same school because of how different we are from each other, and sometimes I am still confused as to how it even happened.
Maybe it's about comfort, maybe it's about family traditions, I have no clue. This is what I do know though: choosing the same school as my older sibling has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Not only did I choose the same school as she did, but I also joined the same sorority. Now we have both of those things to share and cherish forever.
I watched this school shape her into the person she is today, and I am now able to experience the same thing. I wouldn't trade that for the world.