Why I chose SMC.

Woo-hoo! First blog post!

So I figured that a good way to kick off this blog would be to write a post about why I chose SMC in the first place. Fellow c/o 2015 classmate and international student Tarah Strethwatanakul recently did a post on the subject in which I was lucky enough to be featured, but I thought I would do one on my own blog as well (although you should read her post here, in which 2 other c/o 2015 students are featured, and read the rest of her blog too because she's fantastic!)

Anyway, I've known about SMC basically my entire life because my dad's an alum. When I was a kid I used to travel with him to Burlington to visit old college friends and to go on ski trips so many times that it began to feel like a home away from home. I used to tell him that when I grew up to be a "college kid", I was going to attend SMC.

However, by my senior year of high school, I had basically changed my mind. I had tried a little bit of everything in high school; sports, theater, music, travel, ballet (not kidding), and I still had NO idea what I wanted to do or what I wanted in a college. So, I told myself and everyone else that I was going to attend a big university with lots to do, so I could come home from my epic exchange in Poland and do something great with my life... I was very, very lost.

So I basically applied everywhere (including SMC, to humor my dad), closed my eyes, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. When acceptance letters started coming in, Saint Mike's was the first and the prettiest one I got. I know it's a pretty minor detail, but it felt nice to get a college acceptance letter in a purple envelope with a gold seal. I was really, really happy when I got my acceptance to SMC, and as the others came in, I just didn't get the same feeling. When people started asking me where I was going to college, I told them it was between SMC and the University of Rochester, I just wasn't sure yet and I wanted to visit campuses before I made my final decision... but the rest is history.

When I came to SMC (I had been here before, by the way), it just felt right. I remembered how much I loved the location, the campus was beautiful, the professors were fantastic, and I realized how much I actually preferred the small-school setting as opposed to a larger university. Besides, being in Vermont offers a lot of outdoors activities and other things (Ben and Jerry's factory) that other states just don't have, or at least they don't have them in the same way. Vermont, Burlington/Colchester, and Saint Michael's College are all fantastic places to be, and there's no other place I'd rather spend my next four years of college!