The Start of Something New

In less than TWO MONTHS I will be leaving everyone behind and traveling to Seoul, South Korea. It’s sad that this is my first blog post, but it is what it is. This exchange year is feeling more real than ever before, especially because within the last week I’ve gathered and sent off everything needed for a Visa AND I received my first package from NSLI-Y!!

It’s crazy when I think about how much time has passed since I started this process. This time last year I was just waiting for the NSLI-Y application to open. So on that note, I’m gonna talk about the application process.

(Heads up, this is a long post)

Application

The Application is pretty extensive and consisted of 5 short essays and a host family letter, as well as space to detail activities and honors. Although it seems like a lot, the word limit makes it difficult to fully express yourself and convince the people reading your application to award you an ALL EXPENSES PAID, once in a lifetime opportunity to study critical languages abroad. Anyways I reworked my essays a million times and asked every alumni and teacher I could get to look over them. My advice to people applying would be to use specific instances that portray the characteristic you are trying to display for each essay. Your application is viewed as a whole so using a variety of experiences will better portray your personality and it saves you in precious word count.

Interview

On December 1, I got my semi-finalist notification while at work and was so ecstatic. This meant that within the next couple months I would have an interview and I would have to apply for a passport as well as complete a medical evaluation. I read every NSLI-Y blog that talked about the interview and possible questions. What I failed to mention before was that I also applied to the K-L YES Abroad program. I was informed that the interview would be combined so I would only interview once, but the paperwork would be sent to each program separately.

The night before my interview I drove alone for 3 hours so I could spend the night with my aunt and uncle instead of getting up at 4 am. The next morning I got ready and left with time to spare, but when I got to the location I was so confused and I tried every door of the building I thought I was supposed to be in. Luckily I found my way down the road and even with getting lost, I was the first interviewee to arrive. There were NSLI-Y Alum to chat with us and everyone was really friendly.

My interviewer was so nice and the interview felt like a conversation. Like the application, my advice would be to incorporate different aspects of your life when answering the prompts and to be genuine. One of the first things I talked about was how I failed my last interview during a pageant type competition. I built off of that how I grew from it and didn't let it affect the rest of my performance. Stories like this show humanity and are much better than the rehearsed answers that could be found in a textbook. Starting out, she said it would be 45 minutes but we ended up going over an hour. I apologize to the person who was supposed to interview after me..

Waiting

After the interview came the worst part: the waiting. As soon as I left the interview I told myself that I wouldn't worry about what I could've done because there was nothing else I could do to affect the decision. This worked extremely well until about a month before notifications came out for K-L YES Abroad. I had to mute all of the group chats I was in because it became so stressful as everyone gave their input on when notifications would be released.

On March 12 I received a rejection letter from YES Abroad. I knew that YES had a much lower acceptance rate but the only thing running through my head was that the same interview I had for YES was also used for NSLI-Y and I had also recycled my host family letter as well as one or two essays. At this point I counted myself out for NSLI-Y and got back into preparation for college and the summer.

Acceptance

On April 12 I was in my favorite class when I received an email that just said: "NSLI-Y Application Status." I fully expected it to be another rejection letter but I opened it and was frozen in shock. I just turned to my teacher (who is my volleyball coach, my favorite teacher, and also who wrote my recommendation) and whispered, "Hibb, I'm going to Korea next year." I promise I'm one of the loudest people you'll meet but I just couldn't talk and tears started streaming down my face. My best friend asked if I was going to tell my parents but I couldn't type because my hands were shaking so much... so I just sent them a screenshot.

They took a few minutes to respond (lol) so the first person to find out about my acceptance via text was my Korean exchange sister, Kelly. "Now it's literally an exchange."

What Now?

It's been quite a while since April and I've filled out plenty of forms in preparation for this year abroad but that isn't at all exciting. But... I did find out my HOST SCHOOL!! I'll be attending Daewon Foreign Language High School with five other people from the program. We each get to pick a language to 'major' in so I will be majoring in Spanish since it's the only language I have any experience in.

From here to September 10 is a straight stretch and it will be here before I can blink my eyes. I'll occupy myself with studying my basic Korean skills and getting ready for a Vegas trip but in no time I'll be posting updates on the other side of the world! Someone needs to keep me accountable for updating my blog ;)