From the eyes of a newly minted EC by Bryan

So I’ll admit that I haven’t written in a while, and sadly, I have absolutely no excuse aside from the fact that I don’t really know what to write about, but if you tell me, I will, but my lack of blogging is not the intention of this article.

Instead, hopefully, I can be the umpteenth person to talk to you about college decisions and my own experience. When I applied to college, all I knew is that I was going to college, and hopefully, going somewhere away from home so that I could not go home to do laundry on the weekend. With that said, I began applying to colleges where I could study biomedical engineering because that’s what I originally wanted to study. MIT had always kind of been that school for me but since I didn’t know anyone who had been accepted I did not really know who went there or what it took to get in. As I started to fill out applications, I was afraid that the 500 word essays would not completely get across who I was or what I wanted to do when I grew up. And let’s just say this, I was not the most fun person from the months of January to March of 2003. Then one afternoon, I got a phone call. Actually, I missed a phone call. So the emo-high school senior Bryan was at home when the phone rang. My mom looked at the caller ID and said, “Oh look it’s an out of state area code. Who knows it could be MIT!” I responded with a snarky remark to the effect of I know every area code in Massachusetts and that is not one of them. By the time the debate ended, the phone had stopped ringing, and I stormed off in a huff. Then a couple minutes later, my mom knocked on my door with the phone in her hand. She simply says, “It’s MIT.” Mom wins … and so does Bryan when the person on the other line is calling to congratulate me on being accepted to MIT!!! zomg were they serious?!?!?!?

Luck had struck and I had been admitted to MIT and I was incredibly happy. I still had to visit and make sure that it was the right place for me and all that stuff, but I had made the first step. Part of the excitement lied in the fact that I was not expecting to get into MIT at all, and somehow the admissions gods allowed it to happen. Weeeeee!

Four years later, it’s still an incredible feeling to walk up to the steps of lobby 7 and realize that I’m at MIT. This year, I’ve had the incredible and humbling opportunity to interview for MIT. Now, I’m not sure whether I was more nervous being interviewed when I was a senior or being the one doing the interview. I wanted to be cool but serious, fun but collected. AHHHHH! Yea, I was more nervous being an interviewer rather than being interviewed. My general perspective with the interview was that I wanted to do my best to communicate what MIT is like while at the same time trying to get an idea of who I was interviewing and whether MIT would be the right personality match for them. What I learned from the students I interviewed was incredible. Each interview left me with an inspired feeling and made me value my MIT experience so much more because sometimes when you’re caught up in the thick of homework and projects, you don’t really see what you’re getting other than little sleep. However, when I was able to see that spark of imagination and the spark of excitement in the eyes of those who I interviewed, I realized the value of my own education and experience. So to all of those I was fortunate enough to interview, let me say thank you.

I will close here and say this, to all of you who are off to college this fall, good luck. Over the past two decades, you have worked incredibly hard to get where you are. You’ve stayed up late for projects, played in concert halls across the country, won state championships, and had an incredible experience thus far. No matter where you go, the work has just begun. Continue to be an inspiration to those who you meet along the way as you’ve inspired people like me who get to know you for just an hour. For those of you who will be joining me in the Infinite next September, get ready for a wild ride; it’s not easy but when you look back and see what you accomplish, you will be quite happy.