The first time you got an A in math class. The time you won your first track race. The time you made your new best friend in your fifth high school in yet another different country. It is the memories of those life-worthy milestones that you cherish forever. Around this time of year four years ago, I signed and dated my Admit Reply form, and with that, I sealed my future. Think about it: that one signature, that one commitment defines the next four years of your youth and perhaps even the rest of your life.
Nerve-wracking, exhilarating, and heart-quickening isn’t it? It sure was for me. When I received the worn out, jet-lagged Fed Ex packet that had travelled across the world, I opened it with what was a mixture of anxiety, excitement, and hope. I had applied to schools in the UK and in the US, but in my heart, it was always the US. America, in the mind of my naive, dreamy eighteen-year-old self, was this land of distinguished academic institutions, individuality, developing passions, growing up, and trying to live the American Dream. It held a special place in my heart too because I had vague memories of the time I had gone to pre-school tugging my nap-time blanket with me and immersing myself in American culture. I would see pictures of my baby self in a strange, foreign land but I couldn’t connect to it. Growing up the rest of my eighteen years of life outside of it in Asia had completely reset the slate and I was keen to explore and discover. I wanted to go and see for myself what living in America meant.
Looking back to the day I opened that admit letter to see Dean Burdick’s signature and heartfelt congratulations gleaming out at me, I realized that the University of Rochester recognized that hunger to learn, that hunger to grow, that hunger to discover the person inside of me waiting to step out into the real world. And I’m thankful they did. Because four years later, I have gained academic wisdom and maturity. But I have gained much more than that; I have learned the importance of a wise, holistic education and what it is to be a young adult waiting to go out into the real world. I have learned what it means to come into my own. I have lived my own coming-of-age story. Thank you, Rochester.
To those attending Rochester next year, be ready for an exhilarating, eye-opening four years that will mold you into a person ready to take on the real world and become the best you ever will be.