Geaux-ing South (part 1)
It is normal for things to go south in life. Everyone struggles with something different but how these challenges are being handled will determine the how fulfilling your life will be.
Reflecting upon my journey down South, it really stood out to me how everything can be wrong but right at the same time.
And here are some anecdotes that nobody asked for… (but I do hope someone out there will be encouraged to do something he/she has always been afraid of, because things will turn out fine in the end.)
Application for Exchange Programme
In Nanyang Technological University(NTU), students are allowed to apply to 3 schools where they want to do their exchange programme. It is kind of a “must-do” thing since we get to to live abroad for 4–6 months and not worry about our GPA since modules completed during the programme will not be counted towards our eventual grade.
I was fairly confident I was gonna get one of the three that I applied for, given that they allocate the slots based on grades and I had a pretty decent GPA at that point in time. My first choice was to UK with my close friends and another two to somewhere else in Europe as my then partner did not want to go to the US (yea it’s that easy to sway my decisions back then LOL). To my surprise, I did not get any of the schools that I had applied for. I wouldn’t say that I was devastated but I sure was disappointed.
The second setback came not long after that. Me and partner went on separate ways. Impeccable timing, both in good and bad ways. Well, if there was one thing that’s encouraging, it was that there was a second round of applications. Definitely not in my best state of mind, I told myself, “f*** this. I am going to US myself.”
With that, I started my search on the schools I could apply for. It was a pretty extensive list but one of the names stood out. Louisiana State University. Sounds familiar. Not too sure how did I come across this school. What I did next is my favourite part of the story to tell. I googled “NBA players from LSU”. I saw the names Shaquille O’neal and Ben Simmons pop up. And my mind was set. THIS IS IT.
The excitement lasted probably 10 seconds and I was faced with my next challenge. The problem is none of my seniors had done their exchange at LSU and not many from my faculty had even ventured to the US. That meant that I had to start from scratch, mapping of the courses that could be cleared, logistics like accommodation. Basically everything. Still not in my best state of mind, I decided to press on.
Things started kind of smooth I would say. I got the slot to LSU(probably because no one applied, by that time my GPA has dipped) and I managed to match a decent number of modules to clear during my time there. So I went ahead to book tickets and settle the logistical stuff, spending a huge sum of money before I even step foot on the American soil. Then things go south again.
While trying to enroll myself into the classes at LSU, the programme coordinator from LSU informed me that they were unable to enroll me to 2 of the 5 classes. That meant that I was only able to obtain 9 out of the original 16 credits which was not ideal for a semester’s worth of time. This was pretty late in the process and I had very little time to match new modules and enroll for them again. While it’s not anything life threatening, I could potentially be wasting my parents’ hard-earned money as there will be implications to the timeline for which I was able to complete my degree. I had many sleepless nights because of this(true story) as I was unable to get myself enrolled to new courses for quite a while. The already-paid-for accommodation, meal plan and plane tickets added up to some SGD8,000 if my memory didn’t fail me. I was stuck.
I ran out of ideas so I did the one thing I had never done before. I wrote to my professor to explain my situation. I was very grateful that he helped me out by being a little more lenient in approving the courses that could be matched and I ended up being able to clear 16 credits after all. I guess it is okay to say that I am not okay. Phew.
And off I went for my adventure. Alone.
(to be continued…)
