In the midst of having a crisis while study for art history, I decided I needed a well-deserved three hour break. I checked my snapchat and saw all my senior NSLIY friends applying the academic year and college. It made me realize something: I don't miss high school.
But all joking aside, I couldn't help but feel some envy as I watched Ben plow though his college apps, or Jessica rushing to finish her NSLI-Y app. I missed feeling part of the community. When we were all going to China, we got to share the same excitement and the same experience, but now I have to watch as an outsider while all my friends wait to hear to good news they deserve. I wanted to apply to NSLIY again, but the age limitation prevents me from doing so.
Again, being the masochist I am, I decided to look again at the eligibility requirements for CLS, the college version of NSLIY. I had read these guidelines multiple times, and had planned to wait until my sophomore year of college to apply since that was the earliest I could.
Psych.
For the longest time, I had been interpreting "must complete two semester of college by beginning of trip" completely wrong. Of course I'll have completed a year of college by the start of the 2018 program, because it's a summer program. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought I wouldn't have completed two semesters of college by the start of the program, but it just goes to show, being a masochist is a good thing.
Like with NSLIY, if I weren't feeling down about not being able to apply, I would have never bothered to even recheck to requirements. And so, with 15 days until the deadline, I will begin my CLS journey.
I mean, there's a very strong chance I won't get accepted since I'm a freshman and lack the maturity my older peers will have on me. Plus, I'm a film major and I haven't even had to opportunity to start my minor in Chinese yet. I'm not even taking Chinese this year because my school doesn't offer it, but goddamn I want this so bad, and I know I can integrate for love of film and language together. All I have to do is convince the reader the same.
So here's to trying.
干杯！(lol jk i'm not old enough to drink yet.)