If you
would have asked me last year where I would be today, I would have said
exploring the streets of Bologna with an Italian-English dictionary glued to my
fingertips. I had already definitively decided that I would study at the
University of Bologna for the Fall and at the Washington Center in DC the
Spring of my Junior Year. Looking back now, I don’t think I’ve ever been more
excited that things didn’t go according to plan.
It all
started over winter break of my sophomore year when I received an email inviting
me to apply to a new Dickinson study abroad partnership program with Mansfield
College, Oxford University. Honestly, the first thing that crossed my mind was,
“Oxford? There’s no way I’d get in.” The only thing I knew about the
prestigious institution was that it was somewhere in England, and I wasn’t even
willing to bet money on that! I quickly dismissed the idea and didn’t give it
another thought until weeks later, when I walked into my advisor’s office with
questions about Italy and DC. Before I even got the chance to ask, he told me
I’d be a great candidate for the Oxford program and suggested I apply. Even
then I politely (and quickly) declined. To this day, I am not quite sure if
it’s because I didn’t think I had a prayer of getting accepted, or because it
had already taken me so long to decide on Italy and DC.
Nonetheless,
I woke up the next morning with one
thing on my mind: Oxford. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why on earth would
I pass up this amazing opportunity? The worst that would come from applying
would be that I’d increase my already high stress level by 78.4% and I’d be
down the $35 Dickinson requires for all study abroad applications (that may not
seem like a lot, but those who know me know how stingy I am and how significant
$35 actually is). I finally came to my senses and decided that a chance to
study at Oxford was certainly worth $35 and a little added stress. It actually
turned out that when I went to pay the application fee for Oxford and Italy, I
was told that I didn’t need to pay a fee for the Oxford app because the program
was so selective that the chances of me getting in were very slim. Not
discouraged in the least bit (maybe a little…) I set out to start the
preliminary application (3 recommendation letters, 1 essay, a course request
form, and several supplemental questions). Ultimately, I didn’t want to be left
to wonder what could have happened if I let this opportunity fly by.
The
only catch was that the application was due by the end of the week. I also
happened to have a Mock Trial tournament that weekend. Those of you who are
familiar with Mock Trial know that tournaments mean you have absolutely no time
for anything but affidavits, fake accents, and Midlands Rules of Evidence. By
day, I was suited up for court, and by night I was writing the Oxford
application essay and actively pushing sleep to the back of my mind. The two
worlds collided when I headed down to the Hotel lobby at 6:30am to meet with my
advisor, who luckily, also happened to be the Mock Trial coach. Two minutes
after I hit submit, I hopped in the van and head to court. That weekend was one
of the most stressful and rewarding 3 days of my life. After meeting the
deadline and having our team place 3rd at the tournament, I felt
like I could do anything!
But
that was only the beginning. A week later, I got a phone call from the Global
Ed office at Dickinson, telling me I moved onto the next stage of the
application process! I was so busy jumping up and down and sprinting to my advisor’s
office to share the news that I didn’t even process the part about the next
phase requiring me essentially to revise all my previous application materials.
Another week came and went, ending with another phone call even more exciting
than the first. I made it to the third stage, this one involving an hour long interview!
I spent the next week researching anything and everything about Mansfield. It
was all I talked about, all I thought about, all I dreamed about. When I wasn’t
on the computer researching Mansfield, I was in my advisor’s office preparing
for the interview. I was ready.
But, nothing is ever easy. I woke
up the morning before my interview with the stomach flu. It took me 4 hours
before I could even leave the bathroom long enough to email my advisor in a
panic asking for advice. He simply said, “you have to try and tough it out… Your
best is very, very good. Let's see if it
will get you to Oxford.” I slept for about 20 hours straight and then dragged
myself to the interview in front of a panel of 4. It’s all a blur now, but
nothing was off limits. We talked about everything from the death penalty to
Erasmus, the Mansfield cat! I kept eye contact the whole time channeling my
nerves into my fidgeting hands under the table. By the end of the interview, I
was bleeding from digging my nails into my hand. Sure, I complained about it
then (and even now), but after exchanging stories with recently accepted Oxford
freshers, or freshman, who had to endure
an interview 3 days long, I had it easy!
Another week came and went, only
this time it didn’t end with a phone call. As a worrywart, even the email from one
of my interviewers offering to help me get an internship with Parliament if I
go to Oxford didn’t put me at ease. Another week came and went without any
phone calls. Then my worry became shear panic when I didn’t get a phone call, but
an email! The subject line read “Mansfield College Oxford.” Naturally, I
thought the worst. But those thoughts quickly disappeared and I am pretty sure
I even cried a little! The first word I saw was Congratulations!
Yet even then, I was not in the
clear. I was one of 2 Dickinson nominees whose applications would be sent to Mansfield,
but I still needed the okay from Oxford! The worst part was the waiting. During
the process of researching all there is to know about Mansfield to convince
Global Ed that I was the right person to represent Dickinson at Oxford, that I
could do this, I convinced myself I could do this. The more and more I found
out about Mansfield, the more and more I fell in love with it. There was
nothing else in the world I wanted more than to study there. The entire process
began in January. April 16th, I received an email notifying me that
Mansfield officially offered me a place to study for the 2013-2014 academic
year. It became officially official in May, when I received this in the mail
(my first correspondence directly from Mansfield):
Words truly cannot express how
blessed I feel not only to be leaving
for the UK in 15 days, but to be a student at Dickinson and to be surrounded by
people who love and support me. Thank you to my parents (though both of them
refuse to read my blog and will probably never see this) for letting me chase
my dreams. Thank you to my dear friends, especially my roommates, for putting
up with my endless rants about how amazing Oxford is and for encouraging me
every step of the way. And thank you to my advisor for believing
in me. It took seeing how much faith you had in me for me to have faith in
myself. I’ve been counting down, the days, the hours until I step foot on that
plane, but I won’t forget those who got me there. A friend told me that going
to Oxford “is going to change [my] life.” I fully intend it to.
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