About a year ago, I got the most devastating email that I could imagine. It read along the lines of “while you’re pretty awesome, you’re definitely not awesome enough to go here,” and signed off with a basically “thanks for applying, though!” I was, to say the least, absolutely crushed. I had bought sweatshirts and a t-shirt and was ready to call this place home for the next four years. I had visited twice, met with a professor in my program, and had fallen in love with every aspect of the school. Yes, Vanderbilt was the home for me. I was 100% sure. So sure, in fact, that I only applied there, as it was Early Decision and binding. That’s how ready I was to commit to going to Nashville and studying there. The next few weeks were a blur of trying to find where else I could possibly go and what could even come close to the excitement I had felt about Vanderbilt. It was a blur of writing essays so fast that I don’t even remember some of the prompts I answered, and it definitely wasn’t with the same painstaking care that I chose each word for my Vanderbilt essays. I was a wreck and was convinced for a large portion of time that my college experience was now ruined because no school could ever come close to that one, my dream school.

A year later, I know that all of those thoughts and worries were useless. The school that I ended up going to, Boston University, wasn’t my dream school as far as applications go, and it wasn’t even on my radar until about three days before the application was due. However, the longer I spend on my new campus and living in my new home, the more thankful I am to the admissions department at Vanderbilt for letting me have this chance. What I thought was the biggest mistake they would ever make was actually part of my success story, as I ended up at a school that couldn’t fit me more perfectly. While I could argue that it became the perfect fit for me, a part of me believes that it was meant to be that I ended up where I did.

So, to all those high school seniors that are equally as melodramatic as I was, your life isn’t over. In fact, it’s not even close. You may not have even applied to where you’re meant to go yet, because, a year ago, I hadn’t either. So, stop your worrying, because what is meant to happen will come your way. You’ve already put in the hardest work of the last three years, and while waiting for decisions and getting those rejection letters feels like it’s slowly killing you, you only have to make it until May 1st. After that, the weight of the world feels like it’s off your shoulders.

To the Vanderbilt University Class of 2021, I was infinitely jealous of you. I wished so hard to have been a part of your numbers, but I now know that it wasn’t meant to be. I wish you all the best of luck at Vandy and hope that you love Nashville as much as I have come to adore Boston.

To the Boston University Class of 2021, I couldn’t be more proud and overjoyed that I am one of you. BU might not have been my original dream school, but it has become the school of my dreams, as cliche as that sounds.