Senior year when I started applying to colleges I was torn as many other students are. I had always had my heart set on Georgia Southern University, but I was not fully accepted into the school. I was accepted into the Eagle Incentive Program, and my acceptance into the university was dependent upon my success during EIP. Of course, I felt dumb. I wasn't accepted like many of my other friends and I was embarrassed.

Georgia Southern informed me how the program worked. It was for incoming freshman who had the grade point average to be accepted, but were just a few points shy on their SAT/ACT. I would take eight credit hours (3 classes) the summer before I was suppose to start my freshman year, and if I then could prove I could handle the work load given I would be accepted for fall. However, if I was to fail a class during the summer I would not be accepted for the fall term. That was terrifying to me; to know for sure if I would be accepted until around 2 weeks before fall semester.

I ended up deciding to do EIP. I was scared, I had no idea how hard the classes would be, and even worse I had never met the three girls I was living with. We moved in around two weeks after we had graduated high school. I felt young, confused, and homesick.

Then class started on that Monday, and my roommate & I had our first class together: 8 am Math (yuck). Our classes were filled with other students enrolled in EIP, which meant everyone was our age and in the same situation as the person sitting next to them. At the end of the first week, I began to recognize many familiar faces as I had classes with many of the same people. I quickly made many friends, and we were all on the same page; everyone wanted to do well. We would all study together sometimes for days at a time then reward ourselves after we got A's on our test. The work was hard, but every second of it became worth it when we were accepted into the University at the end of the semester.

Not only were we ahead on credit hours when fall semester started, we had made friendships that would last the rest of college. I had an entire friend group from all over Georgia that became my family. My EIP friends will always be my home team. No matter what university's we transfer out to or the cities we take on after we leave here; I know for one thing everything is possible with EIP.