Embrace the Unreliable by Victoria

Embrace the Unreliable by Victoria - September 2020 Scholarship Essay

My goals for this semester:
1) Spend more time reading for fun
2) Re-learn how to ride a bike (oops)
3) Remain resilient

I have always been a planner. When I was seven, I organized a newspaper to publish my exceptional works of juvenile writing to my family and friends. This endeavor involved learning how to type, print, and pay, in candy currency, my two hardest working brothers employees to distribute the final product each week. In junior high, I decided to take that passion for writing and turn it into a career by pursuing journalism. By senior year, I had been published in my local newspaper multiple times, wrote articles for my church’s weekly newsletter, and completed an internship with the editor of the Winchester Star. My plan was to go to college, graduate with honors, get a job in Washington D.C., and eventually write for the prestigious Washington Post. After being accepted to university to study international affairs while working at the school paper, I furthered my acquisition of experience by starting a personal blog and applying to internships on Capitol Hill for my final semester. I was elated to have been offered a public relations internship in the office of Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. With jubilation, I accepted.

Halfway through my time living in D.C. working and studying, I began applying to entry-level journalism and press positions across the city. The same week that I had satisfactorily submitted six different applications, a pandemic shut down the U.S. capital, I was laid-off from my internship, my apartment building had to send all students home, and one crucial class for my course requirements was canceled, postponing my graduation. Within two days, my life came to a halt just like billions around the globe.

It was shocking and I experienced the five stages of grief for my former life but eventually, I was able to cope with what had happened and what continues to change. I found peace in my solitary quarantine while contradictorily feeling a new, complex, interconnectedness with the people of the world, even though I could not see them. At this point, I reconsidered my personal mantras that had gotten me this far and decided to embrace the unreliability of life by remaining resilient to the highs and lows, the shocking and the stagnant. I realize that “remaining resilient” is a paradoxical statement, but the unpredictable is the only thing we can ever be certain will exist. Practically, this means embracing change, considering opportunities even when they may not fit into my “plan”, and never spending too much time living in a past life or grieving what used to be. I am sure we have all heard, “times keeps moving forward,” but this is something I think I never truly understood before. For the first time, I am mindful. For the first time, I am resilient.