A Pretty Big Step

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I finally finished my study abroad application!  I mainly had to wait for certain signatures from faculty along with reference paperwork, but nevertheless the application is ready to be submitted.  So many trips to the study abroad office in Kehoe (a building on campus), numerous calls to staff within that office, and countless emails to-and-from professors and my academic advisor all to finalize the above image.  To be honest, I have no idea how a completed application is supposed to look.  Am I supposed to hand it over with all the papers stapled together?  Should the application be submitted in an envelope as to appear more official?  Or can I take the "Elle Woods" route, and dress up my application with a coverpage and cheetah print binding?  By the picture, I'm sure that you all have guessed which option I chose.  In addition to the application paperwork, three scholarship submissions are also due alongside.  I have worked really hard on these essays and have sent different edited versions to my sister (an experienced editor) for corrections and advice.  This application has been all that I have thought about for months.  I have had dreams of my application getting lost, getting deleted, flying out of my hands during a freak windstorm, and being attacked by jam-covered kindergarteners on some random class fieldtrip through campus. 

Step one has always been to complete the application and send it into the study abroad office by the required date.  It's such an easy step in theory, but this step truly begins a pretty big journey for me.  Everything from here is essentially uncharted waters.  Finally, my adventure begins!

Tick, tick, tick...

With only two short weeks before the due date of the Bond University application approaching, I can already feel myself starting to get oddly excited.  By the end of next week, I actually hope to have completely finished my application and be fully ready to submit it to the study abroad office.  However, at current I am still waiting on one final letter of recommendation and making finishing touches to my personal statements and essays for scholarships due alongside the application.  I'd love to dedicate hours upon hours to making my application distinctive but with classes, two jobs, and an internship...I'm not quite living up to that expectation.  Someone once told me that I would miss these times.  I'm not so sure about that.  I mean, I love learning and improving my education but the chaos that surrounds college is not my overall ideal situation.  I feel like I'm consistently busy.  Truthfully, that's a fair assessment.  But I'm glad that I am.  It seems that the busier I am, the better time manager I become.  Life is crazy, but I'm somehow juggling all of its obstacles and unnecessary speed bumps.  Every time I feel myself getting overwhelmed, I just think about how great the next semester will be in Australia.  Now, THAT will be a time upon reflection in my later life that I'm certain I will definitely miss!

"May the Best Man Win"

I remember going to study abroad fairs pretty regularly throughout my college experience as a freshman, sophomore, and junior.  Every fair I would ask the presenters at the tables about their travel stories, best memories, and overall impression of their completed program.  The presenters from different semesters probably didn't all know each other.  However, they all managed to answer my questions practically the same way: "It's not something that you can put into words, you just have to go and find out for yourself," or some derivative of that reply.  I guess because I saw so few student representatives during these fairs, that I conclusively thought a small number of students actually applied to the abroad programs. 
When I finally chose Bond University as my program for the spring semester, I naively thought that maybe 3-4 students would also be joining me from SUNY Plattsburgh.  Truthfully, I don't know how many students per semester apply to study abroad and which programs attract the most traffic.  But I have this unsettling feeling that I have heavy competition for the complementing scholarships that go along with the Bond application form.  The other day, I met another girl on my way to get an administrative signature for my application who was also doing the same thing.  She too was applying to Bond University and would be going out for the scholarships offered with the application.  All I could think was, "What if I don't get any funding for this trip?  What if the surplus of applicants means that I end up with a measly scholarship that hardly covers my textbooks?  What if my application isn't even accepted because there were too many people going to Bond University from Plattsburgh?!"  ...Yes, I was freaking out.  Studying abroad may be a worthwhile experience, but the steps that it takes to have that experience are stressful.  I know it sounds greedy, but I want ALL the scholarships that SUNY Plattsburgh has to offer.  It would be nice if I was the only one applying for them and I received them all by default so that no one was left without funding, but now I know that that is not possible.  Other students will be competing for those scholarships and I had best put on my dancing shoes.  Okay, even I don't know what that meant.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I want to win badly enough, I have to put up a bigger fight and better effort than everyone else.  May the best man win. 

Blank pages are intimidating

In every study abroad application there is a section to write a descriptive personal statement.  In this statement you are supposed to explain your reason for studying abroad and how it will directly relate to your academic degree program.  Today I started this personal statement and I found that I didn't know where to begin or how to explain myself.  I kept staring at a painfully blank paper.  Then I started panicking.  Did I even have a justifiable reason to go abroad?  Blank paper.  I got so frustrated I started talking out loud, "Why do you want to study abroad at Bond University, Rachel?"...And then something inside me just unlocked.  My mind flooded with all the reasons that I wanted to take my studies to Australia:

-To adapt to a new culture and society in a vastly different environment
-To inspire myself to leave my comfort zone
-To motivate myself to follow through with my own personal fitness goals
-To make memories that will last a lifetime
-To explore new and different fitness venues
-To quench my thirst for travel
-To inspire my friends, family, and class mates to try something new
-To distinguish my resume
-To make new friends and connections
-To fulfill a life-long dream
-To have a big adventure
-To grow as an individual and fitness professional
-To challenge myself in a new setting
-To see new sites and landmarks
-To discover myself and what I'm capable of

...I couldn't not think of a reason for me to study abroad.  I want this more than a package of bobby pins wants to go missing!  I know I want to study at Bond University.  I mean, if I didn't want to go abroad then I wouldn't have gone looking for a way to make it possible.  I guess sometimes it's the simple questions that stump you.  I'm glad that it didn't stump me for long.  I was meant to do this.  Every day that I get closer to going to Australia, I get closer to touching a dream.  It's unreal right now, but that feeling won't be permanent.  This isn't like my dream to literally run into Zac Efron during a good hair day.  Not only is going abroad actually possible, it's going to happen!

"A" is for Application

Putting together an application to study abroad is not exactly an easy process.  Each piece of the application requires some kind of authorization/signature or attached legal documentation.  Truthfully, if you look at the whole application packet, you kind of want to hide it underneath a pillow so that you don't have to look at it.  My suggestion?  Take it one page at a time.  As I went through the packet, I wrote down questions to ask to the staff at the study abroad office on campus.  Apparently, this is not an unusual thing to do.  However, a list of questions that occupies the space of four notebook pages might slightly scare them.  You're welcome, for the warning. 
I'm actually really close to finishing the application.  The closer and closer I get to finishing all of the paperwork, the more and more gentle I am when flipping through it.  Seriously, I've been handling the packet like it was stamped with a giant "fragile" sticker.  I even wash my hands and vacuum my rug before taking the application out of it's designated folder.  I guess I have this reoccuring nightmare that I'll finish my application and somehow get peanut butter on my fingers and then trip on something on my floor and land my hands directly on my finished paperwork.  ...But I'll just rent a horror movie and then I'll have regular nightmares like a normal person. 

On a different note: while I was in the study abroad office, I was informed that Australia was the perfect destination for fitness enthusiasts.  Evidently, Australia has a very active population with many venues for different types of exercise and group fitness.  This news made me more excited than I can even convey.  I guess you always kind of have doubts when you pursue a big dream.  Sometimes, you might even have more doubt than assurances.  It's always nice to have something, no matter how small, confirm that you're heading in the right direction.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Every path has to start somewhere and lead to an eventual destination.  Growing up, I knew my destination, but was far less certain of the path that would lead me there.  Truthfully, it all started with a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie: Our Lips Are Sealed.  I probably shouldn't broadcast that.  Anyway, as the Olsen twins went through improbable situations, fashions, and questionable dialogue, they enjoyed the surrounding scenery of Sydney, Australia.  Australia looked beautiful and that's where I wanted to go. 
However, in between the viewing of this movie and now, life happened.  I went to High School, graduated, started college, and now am in my final year as a senior at a SUNY college.  But along the way, I still carried that dream of going to Australia. 
So, it was a few semesters ago when I noticed fliers on campus for studying abroad and my heart just stopped.  Well no, actually my heart decided to beat a million times a minute like I had just fallen epically in love.  But that was it: that was my path.  The path I hadn't been able to find ever since I was a little kid.  Yet there I was standing with the ripped off flier from the wall and a yellow, brick road underneath my feet.  I was going to Australia.

Now, let's get real for a moment: Australia is basically on the other side of the world.  Everything that I know is here in New York: my family, my friends, my life.  And to be truthfully honest?  I really have no idea how to finance such a big expense.  Furthermore, my degree program (Bachelor's of Science: Leadership in Fitness and Wellness), is pretty rigorous and strict.  How am I going to match up my courses to classes abroad in another country?  Australia sounds like an adventure, but am I truly ready for it?

Yes.  The answer is always "yes."  I learned that from Jim Carey in Yes Man (sidenote: I should really crack open a book one of these days).  Life gives you so many opportunities to pursue your dreams and you would be absolutely crazy to never go along with it. 

So this is my story of going from New York to Australia.  Along the way, I plan to share my commitments to fitness (as it is my major and future career field), my attempts (and hopefully successes) at finding scholarships, and my overall process of making my way to Australia. 

 

Wish me luck!