Alright, so after a slight hiatus, I am back and ready to blog! The past few weeks have been all sorts of hectic as I completed my waitressing job, worked soccer camp for two weeks, attended two weddings, and then packed up and moved (finally!) to Nashville. It’s hard to believe that I started this blog at the beginning of the summer in preparation for documenting this big move to Nashville and my time at graduate school, and now here I am, a couple months later, sitting in my room in my apartment in Nashville.
To celebrate finally arriving in this amazing city where I already feel at home, I thought it would only be appropriate to tell the story of how I came about my decision to move to Nashville in the first place.
It all started my senior year of high school, when my then boyfriend told me he had decided to attend college at Belmont University in Nashville. While I was excited for him, I was also extremely apprehensive of having a long distance relationship, since I would be remaining in Western New York to attend college. Eventually we broke up, but we remained friends for awhile after the break up, and through him I was able to learn a lot about Belmont. Everything I heard about Belmont sounded great and Nashville sounded wonderful as well. February break of my sophomore year I came down to visit my friend and fell in love with Belmont and Nashville immediately. After growing up in a rural area my whole life, the hustle and bustle of the city was refreshing, the weather was my ideal weather, the food was delicious, the people were friendly, and country music was constantly playing.
However, soon after my visit to Belmont, my friend and I began to grow apart, and Nashville and Belmont sort of fell off my radar for awhile. It wasn’t until towards the end of my junior year, when I decided I wanted to pursue occupational therapy, that I came across Belmont again while I was looking up schools that offered occupational therapy graduate programs. As I read about their program, Belmont quickly moved to my top choice as they offered one of the few doctorate programs in the nation and a lot of hands on experience. The summer before my senior year I began graduate school applications, mainly focusing on Belmont, but also applying to two other schools that were more local, but only Master’s programs.
November rolled around and I flew down to Nashville to interview for a spot in the OTD program. It wasn’t really until then that I realized just how competitive getting into Belmont would be. I was one of maybe 350 applicants, many who had been out of school for a year or two, had already been through the whole application process before and been denied, and had work experience in OT related fields, while I hadn’t even graduated college yet. It was intimidating to say the least. However, it was clear to me how the Lord’s hand had been on my journey so far, so I prayed for peace and comfort, trusting He would place me where I was supposed to be.
Following the interview weekend was a long month of waiting to hear back from the program. Finally, one morning I woke up and checked my email on my phone like I usually did. Only this time it was different because I had received an email from Belmont announcing my acceptance into the program! I freaked out and called my parents, even though it was barely 7:00 AM, to share the exciting news. As soon as I received the acceptance email, I knew I would be attending Belmont, there was never really any second option for me.
The months after my acceptance included sending in deposits, apartment searching, and roommate searching and other preparations for moving 14 hours away from the only place I’ve ever lived. But here I am, almost a year after I started the application process, and 8 months after I received the acceptance email, and God’s direction couldn’t be more apparent to me. I know there is no way I would be where I am today without all that He has blessed me with, and His hand guiding me each step of the way. Orientation starts Monday and classes start Wednesday, and I cannot wait to share with you all (or y’all as they say in the South) this next part of my journey as I truly begin “Navigating Nashville.”
Navigating Nashville 