Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I've been waiting on officially announcing this for a while, just because I wanted things to be more definite before I went to the trouble of trying to explain this to people. Here's the story:

A little over three months ago I was basking in the glory that was three weeks without homework (aka, Christmas Break). Suddenly, fun on December 25th turned to apprehension on January 6th. I did not want to go back to school. I don't think I've ever been so upset about going to school or felt almost physical pain in leaving people I care about behind. I realized something: I would not be able to do this for three and a half more years. Not while maintaining my sanity anyway.

And so began the frenzy of activity associated with applying to transfer to a different school and applying for scholarships to cover the cost.

I applied to Western Oregon University, Corban College, and Willamette University. After hurriedly completing my applications in three weeks, I visited Corban over Jan Term Break. I would receive acceptance letters from all of these school throughout March, but two of them would be basically off my list by that time anyway. After considering the disadvantages of going to school out in the boonies and receiving no scholarships or financial aid from the institution, WOU was off my list. After visiting Corban and learning of their strict co-gender visitation rules (members of the opposite sex are only allowed in each other's dorm rooms once day a month) and recognizing the lower academic standards of the school, that was out. So Willamette it is, apparently. Beautiful, expensive, academically challenging, diverse, expensive Willamette. They have great programs in everything I'm interested in. Their music program is even bigger and better than Whitworth's, even though Willamette is smaller! City bus passes are included in tuition, Salem is much closer to Portland than Spokane, and the weather probably won't include so much of this God-forsaken snow most of the time.

Of course, a lot of you probably know the other appeal of Willamette: Jared Nishikawa. Yes, boyfriend goes to school there. At Willamette, the likelihood I will see my boyfriend more than once a month is pretty high. I'll be able to have a normal dating relationship with him instead of one strained by distance. Yeah, Willamette is more expensive, but to be honest our relationship is a lot more important to me than money. I'd rather spend more time being poor while paying off school loans than more time being miserable being away from him. School and relationships are stressful enough without adding that extra baggage of being 404 miles away. Boyfriend and I talked and both agreed upon this. I've spent lots of time thinking, worrying, and praying and can't help but come to conclusion that Willamette is the best place for me now. So, paperwork has been filed and deposits have been made. After May 17th (my last day of finals) I will no longer be a student of Whitworth College, but of Willamette University.

Friends at Whitworth: I hope you won't begrudge me for abandoning you. Whitworth is a great school, I really believe that. It's been a good place for me to be this year, but now I have to be somewhere else. I love you all and hope someone will catch a virgin pine cone for me.

Friends Everywhere: I'm not sure if you'll all agree with my decision or understand, but either way I hope you'll support my decision to do what's best for myself. For those of you living or going to school closer to Salem, maybe this will give me the chance to see you more! I also love all of you and hope you'll keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I go through this rather complicated and stressful transfer process.

Never Fear!

I will be making a real, substantial post soon. I know what I'm going to write about, I'm just waiting for the proper time. Patience!