I can distinctly remember sitting in the second row of the Rockville High School auditorium at my National Honors Society induction ceremony, listening as the current NHS members discussed their future plans. They told us their name, what college they were attending (if they had chosen to go to college), and their intended major. As they passed the mic around, I couldn't help but notice that a disproportionate amount would be UCONN Huskies the next fall. It seemed as if half the seniors had chosen the major state school located a half hour away from their homes, and the other half had chosen what I felt was a more adventurous school, like Dartmouth or Emerson or Coastal Carolina University. It was at that moment that I decided that I was not going to follow the crowd - the University of Connecticut would not be one of my college options.
By that point in my junior year, I had already been talking to coaches at a fair amount of schools, none of which were in Connecticut. The school that I loved the most was Belmont University, a small D1 school in Nashville, Tennessee, over 1,000 miles away from my hometown. I was almost 100 percent prepared to move to an entirely new state with a completely different culture, until one day after cross country practice, when my mom told me that I had received a letter from the coach at UCONN. Yeah, that UCONN. The one I was dead set against visiting.
In spite of myself, I was thrilled, and could not wait to take an official visit to come meet the coach and team. Still, I did not expect to love it as much as I did. Just as with Belmont, I felt so comfortable walking around campus and could picture myself living there. Meeting coach JJ Clark for the first time was incredible, and I was completely enthralled listening to all his coaching accomplishments and hearing about the Olympic and World Championship medals his family members had won. And, unlike Belmont, UCONN is well known for my major, Exercise Science, and has one of the top ten doctoral programs in the country.
Long story short, I decided upon UCONN less than a week after my visit, and, as a current UCONN sophomore, I cannot imagine myself anywhere else. I have amazing academic resources that will help me accomplish my goals, a challenging running environment with the best coach and team, and an incredible group of friends that make this place home.
I guess the moral of the story is that people always tell you not to follow the crowd and make your own decisions based on what is right for you, but sometimes following the crowd is the best decision. I blocked out the possibility of attending UCONN because I wanted to be original and not like everyone else, but I shouldn't have ever worried about what people would think about my choice. It may seem like I chose the "safe", status quo option, but I may have missed on some amazing opportunities if I had not explored that option.
