Yes, Please & No, Thank You

Hello world! I’m posted up in Crossroads, this precious Richmond coffee shop that has a jar of flowers on every mosaic table and funky stickers everywhere, clutching my coffee and firmly denying that this semester is halfway over. (Don’t worry, I don’t just poke around Richmond to avoid my Williamsburg realities. I’m picking up my roommate up from the airport soon!)

So even though I’ve never been here before, Crossroads instantly felt familiar. The speckled concrete floor, exposed brick, chalkboards with the entire menu scratched out in bright chalk, wide windows…I can’t pinpoint why, but Crossroads feels right. Of course, I got curious, and started thinking about what helped me feel at home (besides me being a caffeine-fueled millennial and predisposed to like any and every coffee shop, because duh). And that got me thinking about what home even means. And that—bless you if you’re still following my convoluted sentences—reminded me of a big decision I made (with my parents’ help!) this past weekend: I’m not going to study abroad as an undergrad.

This decision definitely came as a surprise. I remember the exact blog post that first sparked my interest in attending and, later, writing for William & Mary: a list of twelve lessons that the author, current Assistant Dean of Admission Sofia Chabolla, learned in Italy. (Check it here! Serious blast from the past, right?) I took two languages throughout high school, and anticipated starting a third in college, with the goal of fluency and/or making the most out of any future opportunities to study abroad. And I had seriously wanted to go abroad since this time last year. My destination shifted slightly from Dublin to Prague or Amsterdam, with a brief and intense focus on Adelaide, but the idea of going abroad for a semester had been on the table for a long time. In all of these scenarios, the spring semester of my junior year was the time to go.

This past weekend, though, I realized that study abroad didn’t fit with my undergraduate experience as well as I thought it did. For me, it came down to this: I want to say yes, please to more opportunities at W&M than I can count, which means I feel all right saying no, thank you to study abroad. Of course, yes please, I want to travel around the world, but also, no thank you, I don’t want to have my foot on the academic gas pedal while I take the experience in. Instead—right now—yes, please, I want to tailor my history major into something uniquely Sarah. Yes, please, I want to take leadership positions in the organizations that are important to me, and I want to help these groups grow and improve. Yes, please, I want to see what else this magical place, the good ol’ 757, has in store for me over the next three semesters. Just last entry on these blogs, you might remember, I wrote about feeling better equipped to take the (specifically academic) opportunities that W&M offers. Since W&M is the best place in the world to be a student and I feel like I have so much more to accomplish as a student here, why would I go anywhere else?

Somewhere out there, an academic-intensive program abroad surely fits my budget and offers history courses that I couldn’t take here, but that’s not the point. As it got closer to program deadlines, I found myself thinking no, thank you more and more frequently. When I was trying to decide where to go, I had no real vision. The search felt hollow and escapist, like I was looking at programs just to be looking. But when I think about next semester in Williamsburg, I feel this sense of purpose. Yes, please, I want to make the most out of my remaining time at William & Mary. For me, that means staying on campus; for other people, that might mean taking a semester or summer abroad. There’s not a right or wrong answer. Like everything, this decision was a tradeoff, and like most things these days, it was a serious judgment call. And like my entire undergraduate experience, I am so lucky to have (these) choices and the option to say yes or no the opportunity to go abroad, which is a really heavy topic and a consideration for another blog post entirely.

Anyways, long story short, I’m excited to say that I’ll be spending my time until graduation in May 2017 in Williamsburg! In a way, this post seems of place on these blogs, which are all about showcasing the amazing opportunities that begin at W&M, but I’m content sharing the decision with y’all. After all, this is the right decision for me, and that power to decide is a hallmark of student life at William & Mary.

Stay tuned for my second October post in about two weeks, and until then, Happy Pumpkin Season/Prelude to Halloween!