After finishing my Freshman year this past semester, I learned a lot of valuable and applicable life lessons like how important it is to be involved throughout college and how it really is not smart to wait until the night before your exam to pull an all-nighter and study. But if there is one lesson that I have learned through my experience in college my freshman year that is the most important it is that it honestly does not matter what University you attend, but the fact that you are going to school to get a degree is what really matters.

In High School, I was a straight A Honors student who took all AP courses. I graduated with Honors and in the top 12% of my class of about 550 people. My school was academically competitive, and so was I. My life revolved around nothing more than school and band. My junior year while starting my adventure of narrowing down the colleges I wanted to apply to, one school stood out to me, The University of Texas at Austin. It became my dream school and I was determined to get in. Senior year, my best friend and I made so many plans to go off to college together and room together and all of the adventures we were going to have together in our new life. When it came time to get our acceptance letters, UT was the last to arrive. The first acceptance letter came from Texas State University, my last resort school of choice. The second acceptance letter came from Texas Christian University. The prettiest acceptance letter I had received, but also the most expensive school on my list. And lastly, I received a letter from UT. My best friend received her big packet and acceptance letter, and me, well I received a rejection email and a very small rejection letter. I remember the day I received the email. I walked out of school in tears, in shock, numb. I had planned the next four years of my life around a school that I did not even get into. I got home and remember crying to my mom about how awful I must have sucked to not get into my dream school. After looking back at the email and letter UT sent me, they did not fully reject me. They offered me a special program that only 1,000 graduating seniors who also did not get into UT Austin were offered. Basically, I would pick another UT school to go to for a year and then with a 3.2 GPA, I could automatically transfer to UT Austin the next year. After going over all of my options, I discovered the University of Texas at San Antonio. I had never heard of this school until I was rejected from my dream school of UT Austin and little did I know, I would fall in love with this University as much as I loved UT Austin.

I ended up going to the University of Texas at San Antonio for my freshman year and I fell in love with everything about the University. I fell in love with the people, the location, the city of San Antonio, the classes I took, the professors I had, the memories and friends that I had made; I loved it all and I made the decision to stay at UTSA for the next three years. I made great grades my freshman year of college and I could have gone to UT Austin next year, but I knew I would be giving up on a door that had opened for me that I never even knew existed if it were not for being rejected by my dream school.

So as many of the graduating seniors in the class of 2016 approach moving away from home and choosing which college they will be attending, I know there are many graduates out there who received at least one rejection letter, and maybe from their dream University just like I did. I am a living testimony that the saying "When one door closes, another one opens" is true. My rejection from my dream school led me down a path to the University that I was supposed to end up at; the University that was a perfect fit for me and I did not even know it had existed a year ago. God works in mysterious ways and he has blessed me endlessly with the acceptance to a beautiful University, great friends, an amazing and loving boyfriend, a supporting church group, and a loving co-ed honors fraternity all in one year. To think that I would not have experienced that if I had gone to my dream school is a crazy thought. So to all of the graduates out there who did not get accepted to your dream school and had to settle for your second choice, go in with a positive, optimistic attitude and an open mind. You will be surprised the blessings and opportunities that will happen to you in the next year. And who knows, maybe your second choice school will become your new dream school.