Why Carolina?

Every day, there is something new to get involved in, to work for, and to accomplish. Every day, I learn more about myself and other people through the challenges that are everywhere on campus. Every day is completely different.

I made up my mind that I was coming to UNC oh, around April 29, before the May 1 deadline. No pressure there. I'm not a last minute kind of person at all, and I had fully intended to know where I was going by January of my senior year. Obviously, that didn't happen, and now, I am really glad it didn't, because in the time from January to April 29, I figured out where I truly wanted to go and why I wanted to go to Carolina.

My three-year-old-sized Carolina cheerleading uniform is still hanging in my mother's storage closet. At age 8, I had a huge crush on Eric Montross (of the 1993 NCAA championship team for those of you not-yet Tar Heels). Throughout junior high and early high school, I spent hours on the basketball court, dreaming of playing for Sylvia Hatchell (our superb women's basketball coach). By senior year, however, I was questioning my life-long loyalties. Going to Carolina just seemed too easy: too close to home, too many people I knew were students there, too many people in my family had gone there. I wanted to do something new, something different—something that would prove how hard I'd worked in high school to make good grades and to be a leader and to be an athlete.

I wrestled with the feeling that I just felt good at Carolina. I told myself that meant I was too comfortable here already, and that going to college should be all about getting out of my comfort zones. I agonized over the phone with my parents (I was at a boarding high school) about my impending decision, usually talking with my mother, who kept telling me the right choice would just make itself clear. She was right, but it was my father who made me realize it had been clear all along.

I knew I wanted to participate on a varsity track and cross country team wherever I went, and I had already been told by the other schools I was considering that I would be able to run. UNC's coach told me I was welcome to try out, but there were no guarantees. Thus I placed UNC on the bottom of the list.

One afternoon when I was particularly stressed, I called home and ended up crying hysterically to my father that I had no idea what to do. I adamantly denied that I wanted to come to UNC, to which he replied that I was afraid of the challenge. At the moment, his comment made me mad, but upon reflection, I realized I was terrified of what Carolina had to offer: I was terrified that I wouldn't be mature enough to step away from the security blanket of high school friends already at Carolina. I was terrified that I wouldn't make the track and cross country teams and, therefore, I wouldn't be an athlete any more. I was terrified that I wasn't a good enough leader to make my voice heard on a campus of over 15,000 undergraduates. Realizing this was the key. I was still nervous, but I wasn't afraid anymore. I was ready to accept the challenge.

Every day, there is something new to get involved in, to work for, and to accomplish. Every day, I learn more about myself and about other people through the challenges that are everywhere on this campus. Every day is completely different. And I think that’s pretty darn exciting.