One year and one month ago, I didn’t know where I would go to school. My best friend and I planned to go to Brandeis University together.

We would room together and have the time of our lives in those four short years. It was our perfect plan.

We couldn’t wait to go to college together. Yet here we are still waiting.

We were both waitlisted. Our plan fell through. We wanted to get out of the small town we’ve lived in for most of our lives. Sure, Brandeis was only an hour and a half away from Goffstown, but it was a start and we’d do it together. Suddenly that was all gone.

I cried for hours on end. I didn’t know what I did wrong.

Top of my class and too many extracurriculars to count. I worked on my college essay for months. Was that not enough?

There were two more schools I hadn’t heard from yet. Both were my dream schools in my dream city. Barnard College and New York University.

I wanted to live in New York City ever since I was in elementary school. I didn’t just want this wish to stay a wish. I wanted it to become my reality. The acceptance rate of Barnard was 20 percent less than Brandeis.

My prospects for NYU weren’t great either. I had my doubts about getting in but tried to remain hopeful. That was all I could do. I hoped with all my might that I would get in.

I hoped some miracle might happen that I would get in, but that miracle never came.

I was waitlisted from Barnard and not soon after I was rejected from NYU. That nine-year-old girl who fantasized about moving to the Big Apple had died and I couldn’t fill the giant gap in my heart she had left.

I had applied to nine schools but I hoped to make it to one of those three.

I narrowed down my options to two schools: one was Saint Anselm College. I heard Saint Anselm was a tremendous school. People who went there had no trouble finding jobs.

There was really nothing wrong with it, yet I pushed so hard not to go because it was only 15 minutes down the road from my own home, in the same small town I tried to escape from.

I pushed so hard that I ignored emails of open houses and tours of Saint Anselm. I told myself I wouldn’t go there.

One day I finally caved to attending an open house at Saint Anselm.

In New England fashion, it was a cold day in April. I had no idea what to expect. I tried not to think about Barnard, or Brandeis or NYU. I knew it would take me a few months to get over them.

What I did not know was it would take me exactly one open house to be comfortable enough to call Saint As my home for the next four years.

In that same exact day, I met one girl from Rochester, New York.

What I did not know that one year later, that same girl from Rochester would become one of my best friends. What I did not know was that we would meet the best friend group we could ever dream of.

This one friend group would be one of my main reasons for staying at Saint Anselm and actually loving it.

During the summer, I had committed to Saint As but still had my doubts. I wondered if Barnard or Brandeis would take me off their waitlist. I wondered if there was a sliver of hope that my original dream would come true.

That changed when I slowly but surely met each of the people in that friend group. Once that was set, this time, I knew I was home.

I took advantage of the curriculum at Saint As and got to know my professors on a personal level. In one short year later, I became a club president, made it on the dean’s list and had the chance to apply to some life-changing internships.

I’ve made the most amazing friends who I now share unforgettable memories with, whether it be watching "The Greatest Showman" or singing our original song in front of hundreds of people.

The song was to the tune of Michael Buble’s, "I Believe in You," of course.

The main point is, if you think your original plan was the only plan or that it was the best plan, you’re sorely wrong.

Yes, I still think about what it would have been like if I ended up going to my dream schools, but that plan would not have led me to the most memorable year (and friends) of my life.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the plan that you never intended can turn out even better.