Another month of me disappearing would hopefully mean some good news right? …YES! I’m here to deliver my good news: I got into optometry school!!! I’ve been complaining about applications and taking entrance exams and work and internship and all kinds of stuff for ages – it never seemed like it was going to end – but I finally made it in!

Backtracking back to my interview with my 1st choice school: Since I applied so late during the application cycle, I had a 2 week notice before my interview (it was the last interview day that the school would conduct). I spent practically an all-nighter the night before my interview prepping because I was busy with my human anatomy class exams and work in the previous two weeks. Honestly I wasn’t even sure if I’d land an interview so I never did interview prep in advance…I gathered/wrote up Q&As for about a week and did actual mock interview prep in less than 24 hours, lol.

Because of that all-nighter, I was obviously very, very tired on interview day. Interview days last about 5 hours, too, so it’s all very draining. You spend all that time having lunch with other interviewees/current students, taking a tour of the school, listening to a presentation about the school, having a student panel talk to you and answer questions, having a financial aid briefing, talking to admissions committee about any missing requirements, etc, and then finally the interview.

Our interviews were not only at the end of the day, but I was also in the next-to-last group to interview. You can imagine how crazy my nerves were while I was just sitting in the hallway waiting to be called. Some interviewees had two interviewers, but I ended up having only one, and he was a very nice fellow. It felt like I asked him as many questions as he had asked me! I’m super thankful I thought up of a bunch of questions I was curious about because I feel like if I didn’t have them, my interview would have been half as short. My boyfriend took me to my interview that day and stayed with me for support (so grateful ). He told me I was in there interviewing for about 40 minutes; I still wonder how long everyone else’s interview was.

My interview went pretty smoothly except for 1 question where I blanked out, so I ended up making something up instead (even though I actually did have a real experience to talk about that I practiced beforehand!!!). Later that day when I was home, I ended up crying because I felt like maybe I didn’t do the best that I could have done, and compared to all of the brilliant people I briefly saw before interviews, I felt like I didn’t have a chance. On my interview day, all of us interviewees knew that all 100 seats for the incoming class were already full. We applied too late. But, we all had impressive enough applications to be asked to come for the last interview day, and those who did well on our interviews, would be put on the waiting list.

I would check every day to see if I got into the waiting list yet. One week after the interview, I found out I was on the waiting list. From then on, they would score all of our interviews and rank us within that waiting list to see who would be given priority to seats that open up.

About two weeks after the interview, I asked to see what my ranking was. I received notice in the morning that I was in the first group of the waiting list and that it would be unknown how many seats would open up yet – I was so excited yet scared. It could be that no spots would become available all the way up until orientation day months down the road. However, that same evening, I woke up from a nap (I just had an anatomy exam) and received an email that congratulated me for being accepted!

To be honest, I thought it was a dream when I found out because I was so disoriented from my nap!

I was so happy and so scared all at the same time. I still am. It’s going to be the next biggest challenge in my life for the next four years and I’m going to be in major debt $$$. I really hadn’t planned on getting in this school year, so I originally had planned just working the next year and saving up money…but now I’ll just have to go for it! I worry about the money, but my parents worry more about me getting “old” every year and are happy I can finally continue towards my career. The funny thing is I wrote up a big list of goals two years ago and although I strayed from it a bit, I still ended up on track. I’m getting there, guys :) There’s nowhere left to go but forward!

Word spread around fast at work (I work at an optometry office) haha. I’m going to try and see if I can continue working there at least on weekends because 1) I really would miss that place if I leave for good and 2) I really need the money plus I can’t imagine anywhere else that would would be so generous with my schedule. Once I finish my human anatomy finals this week, I’m going to start working a lot more these next 3 months before I begin school so I can save up at least a little bit more. Not to mention I need to mentally prepare myself too. When I start my journey I’m definitely going to update my blog about it.

I’m in. And in at my 1st choice school. It’s a crazy feeling.