My name is Valerie Everett, but
everyone calls me Val. I’m a Junior at UConn, majoring in Psychology and
minoring in English.
I chose the Capetown trip on a whim
actually. I had been skimming through the study abroad website since my
freshman year, always going back to the European trips, particularly Florence,
doing research and casually talking with my parents about it to see where their
heads were at. Being Italian and from a family where travel was strongly
encouraged, I was dying to go back to my roots in Italy and experience the
culture, especially one that is known to have both exceptional food and art.
But it never stuck. I couldn’t bring myself to apply. I don’t know if it was
because I was scared or because I just wasn’t passionate enough about it, but I
always told myself “next semester I’ll apply” or “next semester will be the
one”.
2 weeks before the deadline, I got
on the website and applied, not to the Florence trip, but to the Capetown,
South Africa trip. Maybe it was the culmination of shifting experiences from
this past summer: traveling to Israel with Hillel, getting an internship in
Jersey helping at risk youth, or maybe just breaking it off with my high school
boyfriend for real this time. But I felt like a new person. And for some
reason, the Florence trip didn’t hold the same appeal it used to. As cool as it
looked to party in Italy, I wanted to help people while abroad and I
wanted to grow; I wanted to go somewhere entirely new and different and
challenging and all sorts of scary. And I would be damned if I let an
opportunity like spending 4 months in Capetown pass without me at least trying
to get in. So I applied. And as I waited to hear if I got in, I realized how
insanely I wanted to go. If 10 days abroad in Israel changed me irrevocably,
what in the world would 4 months in South Africa do? My desire to go quickly
went from wanting to craving to needing. So, needless to say when I got in, I
felt like I might combust from excitement. Getting accepted was so surreal, I
don’t think it’s hit me yet that in a few short months I’ll be in South Africa
experiencing Capetown in all of its gorgeousness. I CAN’T WAIT!
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