How I Got Here

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. My chapter begins April 30th, 2018—wait, that’s not far enough back.

We’re going back to December 26th, 2011. This was first time I visited rural Mexico for a service trip. I was a sophomore in high school and had just finished my first semester of Spanish class. I could not communicate well, but the trip sparked my interest in learning Spanish. After that trip, I got home and my high school started seriously getting us ready to think about college. One night, while I was deep into thinking about my future, I made a list of what I wanted my life to look like over the years. At that time I was totally convinced I would go to NYU (I didn’t have a strong grasp on out-of-state tuition, so University of Minnesota was as out-of-state as I got), and I had my plans after college as becoming an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. I also had that after I was done with that I was going to write 4 best-selling novels, so obviously I 100% knew what I was doing.

Fast forward.

April 30th, 2018.

2 weeks until college graduation...

1 class I was about to be late to...

0 job leads.

I had studied abroad with CIEE Summer 2017 and loved my experience. I remembered (with a few minutes before my class was going to start) that they had gap year programs for people who had just graduated high school. I quickly logged on to see if they had anything like that for people who just graduated college.

“Teach In…” programs!

Spain!

“Application due May 1st, 2018 at 11:00 p.m. EST.”

I had just over 24 hours.

There was no way I could pull together an application for this in that short amount of time. It required my transcripts, personal statement, letter of recommendation, proof of graduation…I wasn’t even graduating for another 2 weeks! Guess that’s off the table.

May 1st, 2018 7:00 a.m. CT.

My alarm wasn’t going to go off for another 2 hours. I could have gone back to sleep. Did I? No. I brewed some coffee and started my application to Teach in Spain for 10 months. I can say, without a doubt, that is the earliest I have ever made a life-changing decision.

By 7:30 a.m., I had already hit a couple road blocks:

1. I needed a passport color scan for the application. My passport was at my parents’ house. In a different state. I had deleted my “Study Abroad” folder on my computer because I didn’t think I would need that stuff again. No color scan for me.
2. Transcripts for proof of Spanish language proficiency? Nope. My account was locked because I hadn’t completed my loan exit counseling yet. Sorry FAFSA. Sorry me. No transcripts.

I still had time to go back to sleep if I wanted to. Did I? No. Luckily, since I had studied abroad through CIEE they still had my application on my account from that trip. BAM! There’s that color scan of my passport. I still couldn’t access my transcripts, though. But you know who could? My advisors. BOOM! I was pretty sure I was going to get my transcripts.

14.5 hours before this application is due. Letter of recommendation? Hey, remember that service trip I mentioned at the beginning? That was not my last one. I went back three more times, and all of those trips were led by the same person. I sent a quick text asking if he would be willing whip up a letter of recommendation and crossed every limb I could cross. It was looking good...until I had to go to class and would not be able to work on the application anymore for a few hours.

10:00 a.m. CT. My advisor replied saying she could not bypass the system and access my transcripts. You know that trick kids play on their parents when one says no, so they go ask the other and hope that parent says yes? Yeah, I did that with my advisors. That wasn’t great. BUT the person I asked to write my letter of recommendation said he had one free hour, so if I could send him the info quickly—I didn’t read the rest of it because I went to send him the info and thank him profusely.

2:00 p.m. CT. My other advisor’s door was open, so I figured I would drop by and see if she knew anything about my transcripts. Turns out the first advisor was right and she couldn’t access them. What she could access, though, was my record showing all the classes I completed and their grades. I was in no place to complain, so I took what she could give me, and, again crossed every limb I could. About 10 seconds after leaving I remembered I had not graduated college yet, so I walked back in and asked if she could quick write and sign a letter stating my graduation date. She did and now I'm pretty sure she is an actual angel. Shortly after that, I was told the letter of recommendation had been completed and sent.

How was this happening?

3:25 p.m. CT. 15 minutes before my next class, and I still hadn’t crafted a personal statement. I put in my earphones and hit play on my go-to instrumental song that somehow makes me type faster than what is typically humanly possible. If only I could have written papers for my classes as quickly and as well as I wrote that personal statement, college would have been significantly easier. I had 5 minutes left for a friend to read over it. That was the moment I realized I had completely neglected to tell anyone other than my advisors and letter of recommendation writer what I was doing.

3:30 p.m. CT. Application submitted. 6.5 hours to spare.

I like telling this story because clearly 15-year-old me knew something. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about that list until recently. I found it in a folder labeled “Random” on my laptop while cleaning out files (not sure why I kept that folder but not my study abroad one). It was one of those moments where it all just made perfect sense. The universe was testing me that day for how much I wanted this. I usually believe in signs, and I really should have stopped as soon as I didn’t have the color scan and when I realized my account was locked. Thank goodness I didn’t.

P.S. I did tell my parents about teaching in Spain…a few hours after I had already submitted the application.