Trying to decide on a college can be a scary process, something I am being reminded of currently as I look at graduate schools. It may not be a nerve-wracking as waiting for the letters that will determine your future, but it is still mighty stressful. Especially when you have everyone in your life trying to make the decision for you. Whether they are trying to show you your greatest potential and get you to decide on a school that they think you deserve, they try and talk you out of a school they think you don’t deserve, trying to keep you close, or send you far away. No matter how much you want to keep everyone happy, it is going to be your life for the next few years, so your happiness is the only one that needs to be taken in consideration.
I know it is hard; I am experiencing it right now. I have professors trying to push me into graduate schools because they think I deserve to go to the best programs and then I am having family and friends pushing me into schools back home since I’ve been away the last four years. It is stressful, and it feels like you are letting people down somewhere. But ultimately, you are only letting yourself down by not following your heart.
I have people ask me all the time if I regret choosing to go to IWU, and there has never been a day that I regretted it. Is it hard? Of course, but it is worth it. And as you look at schools and try to decide where you want to go, and as I do the same for graduate school, that is what we need to remember.