In my junior year of high school, I didn’t put that much effort into picking where I wanted to go to college. I’d been a gamecock my whole life and won a four-year ROTC scholarship to the University of South Carolina’s ROTC program. When I got there, I was among 33,000 people and it was very hard to find my group. I didn’t want to do Greek life because I was trying to adjust to the college lifestyle. It seemed very overwhelming to do all of it at once.

I went home every single weekend to see my parents. I started out making all As, but the second semester I started making Bs and Cs. I decided in my spring semester I would transfer to one of the three schools where I won a four-year ROTC scholarship. This past summer, my family came up to Greenville for a crawfish boil and we drove through the Furman campus. I fell in love. We drove past the Swamp Rabbit Trail, we walked around the lake, we drove around the mall. It was more than just the breathtaking beauty of Furman – there was just something about it, something in the air.

I immediately got on the website and started looking into the pre-law program. I went to summer-O (orientation) and started to worry that my ROTC scholarship wouldn’t transfer. I had made so many friends at orientation and it just felt so warm and inviting. I worked the entire summer and emailed every day asking, “did my scholarship get transferred?”

It wasn’t until move-in day, Aug. 18 at 4 p.m., that I found out I would be able to come. I was waiting for the email all day long. I packed all of my stuff in my Jeep, drove up here and went to the transfer student mandatory meeting and did some advising stuff. I was walking around campus with one of my summer-O leaders, Andy, when I looked at my phone and saw my scholarship had transferred. I was so happy that I hugged Andy probably 17 times and started crying.

ROTC here is like a family. We eat breakfast after PT together and we participate in things together. And instead of going home every weekend, I stayed here during fall break to cheer. It really actually feels like home.