When A Door Closes, A Window Opens

These past four years have flown right by. I still remember my first day of high school, being so scared and excited and just having this naive view of my world- well the world in general. If four years fly by I cannot imagine how fast a year will pass by. Last Friday (the 14th) I graduated high school! I am finally done with school for one whole year (and by done I mean I do not have to stress about grades). I don't know how to feel about having graduated...relieved? Happy? Sad? I don't think I have processed the thought that I won't ever see so many of the people who I encountered daily. It is a bit scary but refreshing, that just means I will meet so many more people. It means that a chapter, door, or whatever you will, in my life has closed but a plenty of windows have opened. I am done with high school but I'm just starting to do what I love and what I have always wanted. High school is over but Malaysia is just starting. And when Malaysia ends, college will start. Life keeps on moving, and so far I have been blessed with amazing opportunities.

I will miss seeing my friends every day. I will miss being stupid with them. I will miss seeing some people. I will miss my teachers and staff (Specially everyone who I bothered with recommendations for YES Abroad, CBYX and NSLIY) . But if they were meant to stay in my life, I won't have to miss them for long.

   

So now that I have graduated...that means I have about 28 days left in Chicago! I leave to Los Angeles on July 15th and the following day we the Malaysian crew departs to Malaysia! Like I mentioned before, time flies. Tempo Fugit, as a friend of mine said. I remember thinking I had months left and now I have less than a month left! 

In 9 days all 65 of us will be back in Washington D.C for our National PDO. After receiving a draft of the schedule all I can say is....I will sleep in once I come back to Chicago. It is jam packed with activities and it is going to be interesting to say the least. 

And I'm still waiting for my host family! I think I can manage to wait a few more weeks. 

Details Details

Yesterday night we all received more information about the National PDO and the gateway orientation! So all 65 of us finalists will be flying out to D.C again this coming June from the 26th to the 29th that just leaves me about 27/28 more days until I get to see all my friends again (Shanaya (Oman), Miranda (Thailand), Mallory(Indonesia), Christian (Turkey), and Emily(Indonesia)...I'm talking about you guys). I also need to reschedule some events because they interfere with the conference calls that we have to make- which are really really useful because it answers a lot of the questions that seem to bubble as time passes. We are also staying at the 4H Center again! And now that we actually know how to get around the place it's going to be more fun...

Malaysia is the second group to head out. India and Thailand are leaving right after the PDO, they stay in D.C for their orientation and then leave on July 1st. Then comes us. We fly out to Los Angeles and then our international departure is on July 17th. Which is about 48 days from now. But like I said...who is counting right? (Plus we are the cool ones- LA > NYC ; for now of course)

Local PDO

Having the alarm clock ring at about 6:00am a Saturday morning is not a pleasant experience- for anyone. But with great reluctance I got up, showered, changed, ate some breakfast and then headed to the AFS PDO. It was a nice interesting drive there and quicker than I expected. Anyways, once I arrived a few minutes later Emily (going to Indonesia) arrived so together with her parents we walked in, registered got nifty name tags (name and country) and a nice blue AFS Greater Chicago Area t-shirt. I feel like the t-shirt just made everything more real and legit.

I recognized some kids from my school- all of them doing summer programs, which was kind of amazing. I never realized how many kids from my school were actually interested in programs like these. So after a few introductions we all broke up into different groups (year and semester participants were in our own group). During our sessions we talked about the countries were we would all go: Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil, Denmark, Japan, Portugal and Spain. And then we had some discussion on our expectations and our concerns. It was nice knowing that many of us thought along the same lines and that in fact our concerns were pretty normal, if not expected. There was also a girl from Germany who was there to provide a fresh perspective of the concerns. Language, communication, weather, school, food, and getting along with our host family were the biggest ideas thrown around.

Afterwards we had a lunch break soon followed by a panel of current exchange students in the area (a guy who goes to my school was even there, it was nice seeing a familiar face) and we talked for a bit before the official panel. He told me he made most of his friends at orientations and although half the stuff is boring and kind of obvious, it helps. After the participant panel there was another group secession this time with parents.  This time it focused on knowing and getting comfortable with the country before actually arriving. What does that entail exactly? Well it is familiarizing with the music, with the politics, the government, the geography, the culture, the customs, you get the idea. Then we went in and compared our family lives with fellow participants and we talked about how even in the same country day to day life varies among families. Lastly we had a few situation questions that involved us being in awkward or difficult situations. For example, my host mom goes through my journal, or my host parents don't approve of my friends. We had to answer them and then discuss why we chose to act that way. What we all learned from this was that communication and asking questions are the best things to do- you have to communicate with everyone when there is a misunderstanding. And asking questions is good- you and the person both get answers and clarification.

Over all what did I learn during the PDO?

That is is going to be hard, but you have to go in with the idea that things aren't going to go like you want them to go. You are going to mess up, you will get frustrated, you will do things wrong but you have to just laugh at yourself and keep trying. That there will be bad situations but most likely you'll have as many if not more great memories.

Local PDO Info

After spending more time waiting and a slight misunderstanding I received information about the local AFS Greater Chicago Area Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO). It is tomorrow (8:30AM to 4:00PM) and I'm excited to see the other YESer girls from Chicago! And we get to meet more kids from our area going abroad for the summer or next year so that is also pretty cool. I will probably write more about it sometime this weekend after the event or maybe next week. Only 47 more days for the YES Abroad PDO in D.C! It's not like I'm counting of anything...

While I receive more information about home interviews, and PDOs, and just travel information everything started to become more real. I'm beginning to realize that I'll be gone for the whole of next year and it is just astonishing. So I have decided the top three things to do while still home in Chicago. 

Top 3 Things to do while still home:

1) Spend time with my mom and brothers

2) Spend time with my friends 

3) Begin a photo book for bother my family and my future host family

*4) Get a job (I don't really want to do this one but my mom is making me...)

*I also need to make sure I watch the Great Gatsby....*

I have also found out that I have to most likely apply for the Italian visa while in Malaysia for my freshman year in Florence with NYU. I guess I have to start familiarizing myself with the process so I can make it easier on myself. (With Malaysia all I have to do is photocopy my passport, get some nice passport picture and mail them to AFS people...why can't NYU be like that?) 

Oh, I almost forgot I think I have my home interview for AFS today in the evening. It's just  a formality to find you a matching host family- I'm kind of excited for it. If it's anything similar to the CBYX sending interview then it shouldn't be too bad. 

Timeline

So I have been thinking for the past two weeks of how much of a horrible blogger I am. I’m sorry, I honestly keep forgetting I am going to Malaysia this summer for a whole year. Let’s do a quick timeline of what got me to this point:

April 2012- Rejected from NSLI-Y Russia Summer. On the email I learned about YES Abroad and CBYX

May 2012-  Creep on the finalist for the 2012-2013 because I honestly had nothing better to do…studying for APs didn’t count.

June 2012- I took a break from obsessing over those two programs. I began to study for ACTs and start to finalize my college list. I think this is where I began to write all my college essays.

July 2012- CBYX app was out so I began to fill that out along with all my other college crap.

August 2012- I met some pretty amazing people on a CBYX group and made some fantastic people who I still talk to today. I began to really convince my mom that these applications were worth it. College apps were done and finished and submitted and ooh yeah.

September 2012/October 2012- YES Abroad and NSLI-Y apps were out and about. I finished NSLI-Y within two weeks but dragged to finish my YES app. I was majorly freaking out. I had honestly done about 15 applications by this point. I was burning out.

November/December 2012- Got rejected by NSLI-Y and didn’t give two cares in the world. jk it sucked but I got over it quickly, I still had CBYX and YES to look out for.. I was also deferred by my top university but accepted into my safety. Things were rocky but going good for me. Oh I also had my CBYX interview. Very chill. Very awesome.

January 2013/February2013- Things were going good, everything was calm. Then everyone began getting their semifinalist notifications on the last day of February and I freaked out major time again. Like I always do. But I also got into more of my colleges so life was peachy.

March 2013- I got an email saying I was a semifinalist for YES Abroad and that I would go to the IPSE in Chevy Chase, MD. Life was rockin. I met some amazing people who are really awesome, although all of them are younger than me. I honestly was terrified I wasn't going to stand out or be picked, there were SO many qualified kids.

April 2013- I received my CBYX finalist notification and then four days later I received notification from YES Abroad saying I was going to Malaysia! I hadn’t cried so much in forever. After discussing them with my mom I decided Malaysia was the way to go. Then I paid my deposit to enroll at NYU and submitted by deferral form!

So now it is almost May and I am just waiting on more news a.k.a an email from YES or another conference call. I’m also waiting on confirmation for my deferral.

I know this is long and quite honestly pointless but I promise things will get more interesting once I finish studying and taking all my official AP tests.

A-Malay-Sing

Dear Carmen,Congratulations!  We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a Finalist for a 2013-14 Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad scholarship for study in Malaysia!  

After months of waiting I never thought I would get to read those words. I first discovered this amazing program after failing to make it as a finalist for NSLI-Y. Actually, not failing because I didn’t fail, I just learned so much more about myself and that helped me out a lot the second time I tried. When I first applied to the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad I applied hoping for three specific countries out of the thirteen offered: Turkey, Oman, and South Africa. Malaysia was a surprise, but a surprise that has rattled my whole world and what I expected of my upcoming year. So don't knock something out because it is not what you expected.

As a senior I will be deferring from New York University  I have finally made up my mind and after a lot of thought I have decided that from my two options this is more me. No one is 100% sure of what or where they want to be, so while I might still have my doubts at least I am going to college! The most exciting part of this is that when I return from my gap year in Malaysia I will be spending my freshmen year in Florence, Italy! Yes, that is a tough thing to think about. It will be hard and I honestly don't know what I got myself into but if my mom has agreed to let me go, then I must be ready to do this. Maybe not ready, but prepared. After spending so much time thinking about doing this it seems almost surreal to actually have it in my hands now. 

I know things are going to be hard and there will be times I will want to return home, but I will always give it my best to take a lot from those experiences. I hope to become more than a visitor to my future host community and host family, I hope to become part of their community and of their family.

Look Malaysia! 

YES Semifinalist

I've realized that it has been a while since my last post and a few things have happened since then! All of them exciting and one hugely disappointing one. Let's see where to start....
I am a YES Semifinalist! That mean I get to go to the IPSE, which is hosted in Chevy Chase, MD. I leave this Friday, the 22nd, and come back that same weekend, Sunday the 23rd. This is actually a funny story, so when everyone else seemed to get notifications I got nada, and me being well me decided to vent my frustration to my brothers about it not being fair. I congratulated people and then sent an email to one of the YES people asking if it was rolling admissions and if I was going to get my rejection email soon. They replied telling me to hold my horses and to not worry, that I would get an email soon, and guess what? I got an email! I almost passed out of the excitement. So I had to rush to have everything signed and emailed by the 13th, amazingly I had every form I needed emailed on the 11th giving me enough cushion room in case I needed to fix anything.

I cannot express how happy I was and still am. I have met some pretty amazing people and I cannot wait to meet them in person! This is my opportunity to be social and you know...make friends. (I need to finish shopping for small trinkets and gifts but that is why there is a Target. Target solves everything. Who doesn't love Target?) I can't wait until Friday noon, where I will be on that plane headed to D.C for the weekend. Freaking awesome if you ask me.

The excitement doesn't stop there. A few days ago I was rejected by the University of Chicago. Honestly, I am happy I was, I did not want to go there and I set it as a personal goal. I wanted to see if I was good enough to get it, but the rejection made me realize that putting so much pressure into my grades wasn't particularly the best way to have approached my academic life. And let's be honest, I did not want to go there at all...It's an awesome school maybe for my graduate life?

Today I received a call from St. Olaf College, telling me I was accepted and I was invited to fly in. After having been deferred from Georgetown University, St. Olaf College has grown in my heart. It attached itself to a corner and refused to leave. I cannot properly express my emotions here, after everything had fallen apart it seems that there was something better waiting for me, don't get me wrong I still wish to be granted admissions to Georgetown but knowing that there a school where I truly want to go makes this waiting for much easier.

I can say that life is good now, and that there is always a sunrise, it might be late but it will be there.