UQ Program: Bachelor Of Biomedical Science
So I am staring at a plastic cactus on a van to the middle of nowhere and I am remembering the 20 people chanting the college song to bid me farewell from UVA and still being astonished that I finally learnt the words. I can’t believe that it’s all over, I’m thinking back at what I did and all I can do is laugh - visiting fraternities, being in FYP (First year players) and PEP band all occupied my time whilst I was not studying or in lectures. I completed traditions, watched the superbowl and by the end I had fallen into a relationship. I took classes that I will never even come close to encountering again and I even got to dine with VIP from NASA- it was ‘out of this world’!
Some parts of this experience were just like the movies (getting to know “Greek” Students, eating Bagels and being part of a Scramble/PEP Band) whereas other experiences like saying goodbye to the people that formed my life over here couldn’t be more real. FYP- an acting group in which I participated as a musician- gradually became my American family, especially after the record snow fall (or the “Snow Apocalypse” as we christened it). It was here that I not only met my best American friend but also my very first American Sweetheart, people who brought my immense happiness but a devastating goodbye.
Before coming to UVA as a young naive Australian, I was starting to lose direction, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I didn‘t know my place in the world. As I depart this country, I have direction, I have a goal, I now want to try to apply to Cambridge on scholarship when I graduate and whether I do or do not get in, I know I can succeed in my life. I have a new found independence and I now have the confidence to fight the challenges that lie just around the riverbend.
This experience was a trial for myself to see if I could start afresh as a young adult in a new and different setting, the problem is, it worked too well. Leaving America, I feel like I’m leaving a dream, an experience that I would relive in a heartbeat. I know for certain that it has irrevocably changed my life and if you are sitting there and thinking “I want to do an exchange with one of the best Universities in the US and want a typical college experience” , this is it… it doesn’t get more real than UVA: Snow, Greek Life, Organizations, A capalla, academics, sports, cheerleaders, packed-out stadiums, working hard, playing harder and living every day like it’s your last. THIS IS IT- GO WAHOOS!!!!