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It dawned on me where I stand today. I've done all I can, and right now the only thing that stands in my way to furthering my education this summer is money. Money. Why did I ever think it would be anything different? This is America, you can't crap your pants without paying someone in this country, and here I am hoping to expand my horizons and everything is done. I'm 3 credits short of a degree, I'm a 4.0 GPA, and I have perfect attendance, and to my chagrin I've now been accepted to University in Belgium for the summer. The whole process involved hours upon hours begging and pleading at GTCC to even make it happen. I'm the first person from the college to ever try to go abroad in this capacity, and apply for a Gilman Scholarship- so I could afford to go. In the beginning I proceeded haphazardly never believing I'd make it from one step to another, and even ended up about 45 minutes from the deadline crying over my food one night because of some administrative snapfu at GTCC left my application in peril. One hour later, a miracle occurred and everything was approved. Things kept happening in my favor, and then today after class I walked out, logged-in to my email and got a congratulations letter from Vesalius College that I've been accepted. Yes, I freaked out a bit. Okay a lot.
The problem now is, the money. For my education to continue, for my opportunity to better myself- it all now rides on if or if not I get a scholarship. I realize there's a huge possibility it won't happen, yet I'm surprised to have come this far. I also think there's an argument to be made that in the end it still all comes down to money. While I won't feel cheated if it doesn't happen, I've got to wonder what this country would be like if education, and education abroad was more freely available to students. I don't think I'm alone in this thought:
“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” – Mohammed
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."
So now I wait. Oddly, I've registered for Summer School here and abroad, (just in case) but since our local school doesn't offer much in the way of classes during the summer, my class-load abroad would actually be much larger.
I may try praying just for the hell of it... and that's saying a lot when you don't believe in a God. They say there's no atheists in foxholes, but I say there's no atheists in financial aid offices.
