Moving to College

Today is the day. Today, I’m moving to my new home for the next four years: The University of Chicago.

As I write this flying to from San Francisco to O’Hare after a nearly three-hour delay, I honestly do not know what to think about this moment. As I write this final blog post as a non-college student, I just wanted to take time to reflect on everything that led up to this moment, this big day.

Four years ago, I embarked on this journey called high school where I didn’t know how I would make it through. I chronicled those challenges in prior posts, but in short, I didn’t know anyone when I arrived on campus with 2,000 foreign faces. All I wanted to do is be heard, to share friendships that could carry me through life, and most of all, carry on my passion for learning.

Amidst all of the different chaotic moments of confusion, uncertainty about whether I wanted to be at school, frustrating relationships with peers, and a sole focus on STEM, I didn’t know how I’d make it in college, heck even makes it to college in a hopeful, eager package. Seeing the examples of my older cousins at great schools, my parents immigrating from Ethiopia and making it here, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be enough, that I didn’t deserve the opportunities I did because I couldn’t see success in the same ways for a long time.