Yale is a place many people will tell you stories about. Some will say it’s the best place on earth; others will insist it’s overrated, a waste of time or money. Very few people will tell you what it’s actually like to spend your days in this world–as with any school, the only way to find out is really to live it for yourself.
Two years ago, I found that these stories made it difficult for me to make a decision about colleges. I had first heard of Yale when John Yi, the admissions officer in charge of East Asia, came to my high school in Tokyo during my freshman year to give a talk about life at Yale and the US college application process. I loved the idea of being able to personalize my education, immersing myself in the arts, and living alongside fascinating peers. However, for the next three years, that was all Yale remained to me–an idea. So when the time came and I received my acceptance letter, I found it hard to comprehend the notion some person out there could want me to be a Yale student, and that I could potentially live my next four years of real life in this hypothetical space.
Because of this, part of me was reluctant to commit. I was afraid–of leaving home, of losing my sense of self–but most of all of the thought that I wasn’t good enough to fill the shoes of the Yale student I had imagined in my head. (If this sounds anything like you, perhaps you’ll be relieved to know that every student at Yale is just as confused, complicated, and interesting as any other human being out in the world–maybe just slightly better at hiding it).
The truth is that all those expectations and narratives about “the perfect school” are distorted. Real life is real life anywhere, and a university is not going to magically rid your life of all its complexities.
What I have found instead is that Yale makes a good fit for me because it allows me automatic access to the resources and people that make me feel truly fascinated.
My doubts about Yale stayed until one afternoon my first semester when I sat down for office hours with my English professor. We had a conversation about books and movies we were excited about, as well as his path as a writer.
In that simple conversation, it suddenly clicked for me that Yale wasn’t asking me for some impossible ideal of a “Yale student.” Yale is merely a resource, an endless resources offering you spaces to think, to be curious, and to be excited. For me, that means students that are interested in other human beings, endlessly rich resources for creative pursuits like writing and theatre, mentor figures who are always willing to sit down and have a conversation, and financial resources that allow me to execute whatever idea I might conjure up in my imagination.
In my last two years, I’ve had those moments time and time again where I find faraway conceptualized ideas of Yale being actualized through small moments across my life.
Here are some just in the last month:
My friends playing jazz and drinking matcha in the Pierson College dining hall for JASU (Japanese American Student Union) x YUJC (Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective) Jazz Night
Watching the lightning in my suite during a thunder storm
Helping out with a musical show my friend directed and seeing so many people come out and enjoy it
There will always be ideas and stories passed around about Yale, and I ultimately don’t think it’s a perfect place for everyone. But for me personally, I’ve never regretted my decision for the ways in which Yale has become a real place with real people and memories tied into it.
