Journey to Here - Part 7

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Since someone in admissions sent me an acceptance letter and I was there, the School of Architecture would let me stay and I would pretty much just be starting in with the freshmen. I got signed up for the appropriate classes and began.

I was in love. Everyone was so accepting and welcoming. People listened to country music! I met a group of girls to hang out with, and wait for it- we WENT TO CHURCH TOGETHER! There were awesome church programs and multiples to choose from.

About a month after arriving in Virginia, I met a boy that lived down the hall from me. He had a stupid fro but liked the same Christian bands as me, Adam Sandler movies and shared my (quickly growing) interest in college football. It was meant to be.

 

It was meant to be. Everything. God had this all planned out since that first dang hockey game. So many little things brought me to this point, none of which made sense at the time, but looking back it is clear as day:

• The incentive of acceptance to RPI to get me to follow through on homework and extracurriculars.

• Having the need to break up with the high school boyfriend for no reason other than God telling me it wasn’t right anymore.

• That thought bring put into my head by God, telling me to leave RPI and transfer. My mom was laid off from RPI within months of this push by God that told me to apply elsewhere. If God hadn’t told me this, or I hadn’t listened, there is no way that I could have afforded to stay at RPI without that tuition that was a benefit from my mom’s job. I would have been transferring anyway, but to community college since application deadlines were past by that point.

• The fact that I DID get that time at RPI to meet one of the best friends I've ever had. 

• The connection and urge for Virginia Tech that I felt without having ever been there and only lightly browsing their website.

• The instant connection with Blacksburg once there.

• No one had authorized my acceptance to the school, yet I still got an acceptance letter and got to stay. (I proved them wrong and graduated with honors. I got my honors sash from the same professor that told me I shouldn’t have gotten accepted.)

• I met that boy down the hall who filled every single qualification on my list. (Really.. I had a list. It was written down with a friend and a church mentor and then I modified it after leaving RPI.)

 

• I got a degree from one of the top 5 design schools in the country- a higher ranked school than RPI.

• I get to work in a field where I truly care about the work.. the RIGHT job for me.

• I’ve got the boy, the cat, the dog, and the house on the land that I love.

 

I do not know how someone could look back at this story and not see the hand of God guiding me. It is clear as day to me.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:10-12

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Journey to Here - Part 6

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Acceptance letters came out in June. I got in to both schools and my parents and I decided it was time to actually visit Virginia Tech – this mysterious place that I was so drawn to. We made a couple of VERY short days of the drive down and a tour. Driving through the main entrance to the school felt more like coming home to me than anything ever has. The VT pruned bush, the football stadium soaring in front of us, the Hokie bird prints painted on the road.. everything. The school is set in the middle of agriculture- farmlands, cows, horses and was peaceful like you wouldn’t believe.

We (somehow) found our way through the giant (compared to RPI) campus to Burruss and the office of admissions and got on a tour. It was summer break so the campus was pretty empty, but I was loving it. Everyone that we passed was so welcoming- they said “Hi” and held the doors for you!

My decision was made. I signed that acceptance letter as soon as I got home and got registered for orientation. About a month later my dad and I made the crazy 12 hour drive again to sign up for classes and meet professors. It turned out to be worthless since no one could tell me what classes I needed to take as a transfer student into this program – especially since I came with architecture class history that could possibly be applied to the interiors coursework. They told me to just meet with someone in the School of Architecture when I came down for move in.

In mid-August (about another month later!) my dad and I made the drive AGAIN. We left on a Tuesday after work and drove to Hagerstown, MD where we stayed overnight. We got up very early on Wednesday and completed the drive down I-81 to exit 118B and Blacksburg, arriving around 10:30 AM. There was a mad dash to unload all of my stuff from my dad’s work van and then he was gone by 11 AM, needing to get back to NY for work the next day.

If ever there was a time that I should have felt along and abandoned this was it. I was in a new state, in yucky old dorm with no clue what classes I would be taking in 5 days. But I didn’t. My roommate came and she, her mom and her friends that were also on our floor were awesome. They took me right in, brought me out to eat with them and everything was perfect.

Rommate and me.. not twins, I swear!

I had an appointment on Friday with school staff to review my transfer credits and place me in classes. I got there with my transcripts and portfolio and was told that none of it was any good, that they had no record of reviewing my information and that I should not have been admitted as a transfer student- they only accept about 50 students into that program per year. Not only was the last two years of my life a waste, class work-wise, but that I didn’t belong at this school in that program.

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Journey to Here - Part 5

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Out of the middle of nowhere in mid-January it hit me…. I didn’t belong at RPI and needed to leave. The thought of not being at RPI had never crossed my mind and it was like it just popped into my brain. I stewed for a couple of weeks and finally broke it to my parents at the kitchen table one weekend. I didn’t want to be at RPI anymore and needed to leave- oh yeah, and while I was transferring, I wanted to change my major too. While I had been planning on being an architect for as long as I could remember, I wanted to focus on space planning and the design aspect- not structural and exterior things. While researching a transfer I found that there was a degree for that! Because I hadn’t looked past RPI in the first place I didn’t realize I could specialize in something deeper than architecture.

I was expecting to be told to suck it up, deal with it, stick it out, etc. I was getting free tuition at a prestigious private school!

Instead they agreed.

Apparently it was clear to them that it wasn’t right for me. They could see I was different.

At this point it was early February. Transfer application deadlines were for February 15. My mission for the next week was to a) find schools to apply to and b) fill out those dang applications! Where did I apply to? Well.. pretty much the same places that I did in the first place – Wentworth had an interiors program and had offered me a pretty sweet scholarship the year before, so I went for it again, and I also applied to Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech kept popping up in my searches for accredited interior design programs, and they also had a Russian program where I could use my college credits earned in high school, as well as a landscape architecture program, which would have been my next option if I changed my major again. This school that I had never been to became my front runner.

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Journey to Here - Part 4

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Pretty much as soon as we moved in my roommates became a HUGE downer. It was within the first week that they were out drinking and going to the frats and I was NOT cool with them coming back loud and drunk. They were messy and overall inconsiderate. By a month or so into the semester they had both gotten boyfriends.. who proceeded to literally move into our room- they kept there clothes there and everything. This made 5 (FIVE!) people living in what was originally a double dorm room. I would make the whopping 10 minute drive home every weekend to stay at my parents’ house, just so I could leave that place.

My dorm room.

My roommates' idea of a good dorm fridge..

My studio desk.

In addition to being run out of my own dorm room, I was having boyfriend issues. We had been dating since 10^th grade- 3 years at that point. There was nothing really wrong with the relationship.. I just kept feeling like it wasn’t right anymore. Halloween weekend I broke up with him.

Dorm of hell.

Enter a major period of depression for me. I hated my roommates (and the school would not let me move off campus back to my parents’ house for the second semester), I was no longer dating someone that I had been with for 3 years and saw a long term future with, and my school work was not interesting at all. I was putting in, on average between class time and working time after hours, 14 hours a day at the studio doing stuff I didn’t care at all about. I wasn’t making friends – there was pretty much two categories of people that I ran into – wicked nerds that played video games and the people in frats or sororities.

My church growing up.

I remember sitting in church that fall/early winter at a Thursday service that I had gone to and just being so choked up, trying not to cry. On one occasion I was crying so loud in the shower that a girl on the other side of the suite came to me after and asked if I was okay. Everything that I had been planning for years and years was falling apart in front of me, was nothing like what I had expected and there was nothing I could do about it.

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Journey to Here - Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

That acceptance letter was seriously 11 + years in the making. Most everything I had done since first grade was a build up to that moment. It was here – I had made it and I DID IT. The rest of the spring was a flurry of more acceptance letters to my “back ups”- Wentworth in Boston, Syracuse University and Virginia Tech (a random application.. they had an architecture school the farthest out of my parents’ radius). If I remember correctly, I didn’t even visit any other colleges – we just decided that if I didn’t get into RPI and had to go somewhere else we would visit the schools that I DID get accepted to. These other acceptance letters meant nothing to me though- I was going to RPI and that was that.

Graduation with my sweet red chucks.

Graduation came. I sat in the front row as an honors student, community service honoree, etc. I was pumped to be out of that school and on to college.. FINALLY. I had a graduation party and used my gifted funds to set up my dorm room. Since I was early decision I got into the “good” dorm – the newest and only had double rooms instead of triples like most of the freshmen dorms. In the middle of the summer I found out that more students accepted than staff were planning and my double room would turn into a triple. The rooms were big so it should be okay. I got my future roommates names and contact information over the summer and we wrote each other letters and talked on AIM. I decided they were cool and it would be a good year.

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Journey to Here - Part 2

Part 1

Around fourth grade is when team sports become more a part of kids’ lives and I was consistently asking my parents to let me play hockey. It was a no-go with them. The local girls’ team traveled and they did not want to invest that much money or time for something they didn’t know if I would stick with or not. I got figure skating instead. I figured skated all the way through seventh grade when I graduated from the program and the only way to continue would be to pay for a private trainer and since I knew I obviously wasn’t going to go to the Olympics, no one really cared to train me.. not to mention the exorbitant costs that would be involved in that.

In eighth grade I went back to soccer to be doing something. I joined a travel team and hated it. Soccer just wasn’t for me, but I followed through on the season and still worked hard as part of the team. My dedication paid off… my parents decided it would be okay for me to play hockey since I would follow through!

In ninth grade I joined the girls’ travel team and was in LOVE. I loved skating, practice, my teammates, coaches and the games. Obviously I went back for more and more, all the way through high school. Having practice 2-3 nights a week (usually 8:30-9:50 PM- decently late) really forced me to focus on my school work and prioritize my time. I kept working hard in school to get the grades for RPI, and joined as many clubs and leadership items as possible, in order to build my extracurricular resume. Senior year I was the president of National Honor Society, in Key Club, co-captain of my hockey team, co-founder/leader of a Bible Study group at school, and I was taking college classes after school (at RPI) for high school and college credit. I kept taking the SATs until I had the scores that would compete with the average SAT score for incoming RPI students. I wanted to do everything I could within my power to get accepted.

In December of 2002 the envelope came. I had applied for the early decision program (why would I not, since RPI was my top choice and if I got in there was NO WAY I was going to go somewhere else). I opened it in my car in the driveway after I got it from the mailbox. I GOT IN.

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Journey to Here - Part 1

I went to my first hockey game when I was four years old. We had just moved into the house that my dad built in August. My sister was just an infant. It was a Friday night and I was bored and wanted to go somewhere or do something. I asked if we could go to my aunt’s house, my grandma’s house.. anywhere. Eventually my mom asked me if I wanted to go to a hockey game.  I agreed quickly and then thought to ask “what is hockey?” She explained that it is a game on ice and I think that was probably all that I cared to hear. She had gotten tickets to the local AHL team from a co-worker for a game that night. We dropped my sister off at grandma’s house and were off to the rink.

I was hooked. From that point on we went to several Capital District Islanders games a year.. as many  as I could convince my parents to bring me to. The years went by and I learned what the game actually was and became obsessed with hockey. Time went by and we started going more and more to the local college (where my mom worked) for their Men’s Division 1 games. I was in awe of the college kids and the school. Since my mom worked there, if I was accepted to the school I would be awarded free tuition (and my dad promised me a car when I graduated in return!). I promised myself as a first grader that I would be going to RPI and I would be one of those college kids at the games (and getting my free car).

From first grade on, I was a loyal RPI fan and promoter of the school. I devoted myself to my schoolwork so one day I would get into RPI. Honestly- this was my main motivator for doing schoolwork all the way though graduation. It is a private school with a lot of nerds so the GPA/SAT scores are relatively high. I needed to make sure I would get in!

From elementary school on I knew that I wanted to do architecture (after I went through my vet phase- once I realized that a vet has to deal with sick animals and even put some down I knew it wasn’t for me). My dad is a carpenter and general contractor- I had grown up on job sites and helping him and loved it. I was the kid that sat in church drawing floor plans and sketching. I have notebooks full of these drawings and couldn’t wait to get to RPI to study architecture in depth.

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