My senior year of high school I had my eyes set on a huge university near my hometown. I loved everything about this school, I even knew what dorm I wanted to live in. Of course, I still applied to several other schools in my state to keep my options open. My dream school did not offer me any scholarships, and I wasn't really expecting anyone to. I was a good student with good scores and grades, nothing super special.

Then one of the universities I applied to on a whim one rainy day sent me a letter in the mail. They were offering me a place at the school, in my program of choice and $2,000 a year in scholarships. For the state of Florida, a couple grand can go a long way in terms of tuition because the costs tied to going to school are comparatively low. I considered the offer, but I still had my heart set on my dream school.

A few weeks later, after I sent in my updated and improved ACT scores, I got another letter from the school, doubling my scholarship offer to $4,000, plus a place in the invite only Honors College and an additional $2,000 scholarship if I accepted my place in the Honors program. I sat down to look at my budget and I realized that these scholarships, plus the one I received from the state would cover all of my tuition expenses. I felt cornered into accepting a spot at this university, and so I did.

I tried to make myself super excited about attending this school, and it worked for a while. But after I began my first semester, I was convinced I had made a huge mistake. I even began to fill out transfer applications to anywhere else. I made a choice for a school based on money and convenience and I was sure that because of this I would be miserable here for the next four years.

Then I met with my advisor and we started talking about different things I could do—study abroad, research, organizations to join—and I started looking into more of the opportunities my school had to offer. And I slowly started to realize that I didn't make the wrong choice about my school, I just had the wrong mindset. God placed me here for a reason, and I may not know that reason yet, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. So I may have been sure at the time that I picked the wrong college, and that's okay because this experience is what you make of it, and I'm going to make it something wonderful.