Just about a year ago, on December 16th 2020, my life changed forever. On December 16th 2020, I got into Yale. When I clicked “View Status Update” and saw the famous dancing bulldogs and Yale fight song, I felt like all of my work over the past four years was finally worth it. So much has changed since that day, and I want to take this moment, just as my first semester at Yale is coming to a close to reflect on just how much has changed.
The first, and perhaps most obvious, change is the fact that I live in a completely different environment. I opened my acceptance letter in my tiny childhood bedroom while on a Zoom call to plan a virtual event for Future Business Leaders of America (very 2020). Now, I am writing this while sitting in the Morse College library after coming back from dinner with a few friends. While I will always be “from” Maine, I can now confidently say that New Haven is home.
My academic life has also drastically changed. High school is very different from college, but my public, rural high school is especially different from a college like Yale. At the simplest level, my classes have changed quite a bit. Last year I was taking classes in statistics, government, anatomy, and literature. Now I take courses in psychology, sociology, forgein language, and philosophy. I have also learned to think about academics in a completely different way. For example, in high school my objective when writing a paper for class was often just to answer a question or support a claim. Now, when I write I need to create a new, unique perspective on an issue. The opportunity to think and learn in new ways was one of the primary forces that drew me to apply to Yale and now that I am a student here I can confidently say that I feel challenged and excited by what I am learning in the classroom.
Perhaps the biggest change has been the group of people I’m around. I love all my friends from high school and I am forever grateful for everything my town and my school communities gave to me. However, here I have met the most incredible people I could imagine. Everyone, from classmates to professors has been such an interesting and enriching person to have in my life. I am friends with world-class musicians, Olympic athletes, and published authors (not that any of those are prerequisites for being admitted) and I learn from scholars that are at the top of their fields and at the forefront of research in their fields as well. Every day I feel lucky to be around the community I have found here and I am more and more excited to be a part of Yale the more people I meet.
A lot can change in a year, especially when you receive a letter like I did. I will forever be grateful for Yale for completely changing my life and I hope others have the same experience.
