Last year after finishing up high school, I envisioned myself a year later and thought I had a concrete plan on where I was going to be the summer of 2017 and what I was going to do. I assumed that I would be transferring and preparing for a new adventure at a school outside of the city. I saw myself hanging out with friends consistently in ways that I had never thought of in high school. I saw myself interning as well; I didn’t know where, but I knew that I would have something to do. Many of these plans that I thought of a year ago fell through and I couldn’t be happier.

I had a great year at City College, met a lot of people, and grew in many ways considering that I am a commuter student. The relationship with my friends from high school grew stronger, and it’s great seeing them flourish in the spaces that they were meant to be in. Instead of transferring, I will be spending another year at CCNY at the very least.

When I first committed to CCNY, I thought it was the end of the world. I was ready to commit to Berklee College of Music, and when those plans didn’t happen I was devastated. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but the first thought in my mind was “I’m going to transfer”. In hindsight I realize that part of the reason as to why I wanted to transfer was because I wanted to get the true college experience of dorming and being on my own (but that’s another article). I had a list of schools that I wanted to apply to and my Common App was opened for the entire year. I built relationships with professors strictly for the purpose of getting a recommendation letter. The main thing that kept my average great my freshman year was so that no school that I applied to could turn me down. Since I had this mindset of transferring, I didn’t really get close to anyone till the end of that semester (which I regret). As I started my second semester I landed an awesome internship at a recording studio, and I realized that City College was my new home. There are so many things that I can do here in New York that I would never be able to do in a place like Boston, Washington D.C., or any other city that I wanted to move to.

But back to what I’m doing during the summer: I’m going to be continuing my internship at the studio and then I’ll be spending a month in Mali, West Africa.

It’s been over ten years since I’ve last been there and I can’t wait to see my family. While in Africa, I’ll be working on my music and working with musicians in Bamako (the capital). I also want to visit a lot of historic landmarks and places that I don’t quite remember about since I was a kid. I want to stock up on Malian culture and do what the teenagers are doing out there. A lot of things are very similar to what my friends and I are doing here in the states, but with a new environment you tend to see a slight change in how people act. Last year I would’ve never seen myself spending a month in Mali, but now I couldn’t have it any other way.

That just goes to show that not all of your plans have to follow through. I am excited to document my journey next month in Mali.