Anna says "WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

As I sit here in the safety and comfort of my dorm room, I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I won't be living in Storrs next semester, that I won't even be in the same country or on the same continent. As I began to look into this program last year, I talked with past participants, attended the symposium, and talked with my advisor about the realities of meeting graduation requirements, I started to become invested in being admitted. When I first told my parents that I was looking into studying abroad, they replied with some vague interest, "oh that sounds nice, where in Europe do you think you'd like to go?" Needless to say, when I announced that I was applying to spend a semester in Africa, I think they did their best to brush it off as just another one of my silly fantasies of grand travel plans, that would never actually come to fruition. As they began to take me seriously, and others took an interest in the fact that I was applying, I made sure to always qualify my excitement by saying that I hadn't been admitted yet, maybe partially never seriously thinking that I would be. Upon hearing that I had been accepted, my efforts of remaining semi-calm, and rational throughout the process flew out the window, and my initial reaction was essentially, WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I don't think the reality that I'm actually going will hit me until I step off the plane, it's still absolutely surreal. I can't wait for this adventure to begin!