Word on the street (or should I say, College Confidential) was that the admissions decision from my dream university—Brown University—would be out on that day. The days leading up were filled with anxiety, nervousness, as well as some excitement. The dread seemed to outweigh the pleasantness of the situation. Waking up on that day, the first thing I did was to check my email … and there it was. The email from Brown was just sitting there, waiting for me to open it. I hesitated, although I wanted to find out so bad, I had this nagging fear in my mind that I wouldn’t be accepted. My personal statement was rubbish, and they probably have way better candidates than me. They’re one of the best universities in the U.S., why would they possibly want me? Hence, I decided against opening it and my day panned out as usual … except for the fact that I couldn’t concentrate properly. Obviously. Honestly, I was so utterly convinced that I was rejected that I even thought of not opening the email until the week after. Finally, my father told me, “If you don’t want to check it yourself, let me check it for you. You can just give me your username and password and I’ll let you know.” I was like, “No way am I giving out my password!” So finally, at exactly 3pm (see how anxious I was? I even remembered the exact time), I opened the email … Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you of your admission to The College of Brown University as a transfer student for entrance in September, 2013. You are one of a small group of highly-qualified students accepted from among more than 1,700 transfer applicants. My heart literally started to burst into tears of happiness and I started jumping around in my room. I even let out small squeaks of delight, something I didn’t even know I could do! In that moment, the only thing I could think of was, I did it! As Stephen Chbosky puts it,

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

I know this sounds a bit too dramatic, but I would say that getting into Brown has been my biggest achievement to date. A lot of people seemed to doubt that a girl from a community college in Washington State, like me, could get into a famous Ivy League university like Brown. But I proved that they were wrong. And if someone like me can do it, so can everyone else. Nowadays, I’ve started counting up the days till I start my new life, in a new state, attending my new school. Thinking about it literally makes my heart race. The usual doubts of attending a new school have been haunting me, What if I don’t have any friends? What if I don’t do so well in my classes? What if I’m totally outsmarted there? What if…? What if…? And the list goes on. At the same time, thinking about the new experiences I’ll have makes me excited. Not every girl from Indonesia gets to receive an undergraduate education at an elite university. I should still keep in mind, however, that the journey doesn’t end here. Just because I’ll have a degree from Brown, it doesn’t mean the hard work ends here. Hopefully though, if I put in all my effort, everything will turn out okay.   Post by Indira Pranabudi, an international student alumna of Green River Community College.