It’s 1 a.m., and I am sleeping on the bare floor in a Washington & Lee University dorm – all because I just could not figure out how to inflate the riddle-like sleeping pad I was provided. Aimlessly staring at the ceiling, I was wondering to myself if giving me full financial funding was the biggest mistake W&L had ever made.
My college application journey was not too distinct from Dante’s into the depths of Inferno. It snapped me out of the stillness of days and gave me a renowned sense of distress and urgency.
Above all, it was a pursuit – there wasn’t a time I would wake up and ask myself: “What shall I do today?” The answer was, well, obvious. Mainly because for me it was a question of, to put it bluntly, survival.
Unable to return home to Ukraine, in a foreign country with little money in my pocket, the prospects looked rather bleak. I was in an awfully simple, dichotomic situation: get a full ride or get a full-time job at McDonald’s. In either scenario, I knew I’d figure it out, but the former was still more appealing.
Following thousands of words written, deleted, written again, time, and a stroke of luck, I was admitted.
And that is how I found myself wide awake at 3:00 am, getting in the car with my college counselor, capstone advisor, track coach, mentor, journalism teacher, and a close friend of mine. All of them are named Fred Alvarez.
We drove to LAX, caught a plane to Chicago, and flew into Roanoke, Virginia. It reminded me of another home of mine, Minnesota. We were welcomed by lush greenery on the hills, rolling far as the eye could see. Red silos, like guards, marked the farmlands. Little towns, each with their own unique story, met us on our way to the final destination, the W&L University campus.
Everything leading up to the college visit felt like a challenge of reality. “Is this for real?,” was the trivia question of the day, for days prior and later. Scores of students and professors we met provided the answer as a definite “Yes.”
I wanted to go everywhere and do everything, get a peek into the next four years of my life. I toured the campus and went on a stroll through the town. I attended a lecture on Human Genetics and met the professors.
All of that, yes, but more importantly, I met some amazing people. One pal who fled Afghanistan during the Taliban’s takeover and who, like me, won full-ride tuition through QuestBridge, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit that connects the nation’s most exceptional, low-income youth with leading colleges and opportunities. A girl from Bucha, Ukraine, the town that should sound familiar to you. A black Christian guy from rural South Dakota who I had felt a great connection with. A lady who read my application essay and another lady that conducted my interview.
In a period of a day and a half visit, I saw strangers become life-long friends, couples form only to be split apart for months to come, and other sorts of mini dramas, each distinctly human, play out.
These memories, giving rise to a sense of belonging, will be the difference between the A+ U.S. News and World Report college and the “this is my new home” college. And I too, found my people.
Perhaps, the best friends I could have had, or, maybe, just a group of strangers. After all, it is up to me what will become of it. Just like my experience being ok, amazing, monotonous or exciting is – ultimately it is ALL up to me.
And so, with a song, a smile, and a thrill, I step into this next, exciting chapter of my life.