The Day Everything Changed

It was a good day, the sun was shining. I was on the couch waiting for a friend to knock on my door. We were supposed to hang out and play basketball this day. Instead of hearing a bang on my door, something started making a very loud noise. I couldn’t stand it, it was getting louder with each second. At some point, I sat up in my bed hitting the stop button on my phone. It took me a couple tries because it was dark. It was four in the morning. I stood up and looked around. Two suitcases and a backpack were waiting for me near the door of my room. I showered and came down for breakfast. When I reached the fridge, I took out the ingredients; toast eggs, cinnamon, french toast, and made myself a coffee. A sudden thought hit my mind. I’m leaving my country for four years and only coming back for breaks and summer. I finished every morning chore and was ready to go out. My mother opened her arms and hugged me. My dad lifted up the bags and carried them to the car. On my first step at the airport, I realized I wouldn’t have any help anymore after the check-in.

My father and I checked in for my flight and went to get more coffee. I had a delicious iced caramel macchiato and he had an expresso. Then we went to the security line, and I was all alone. My dad hugged me, then I could see him through the window waving for the last time until the Thanksgiving break. Walking through the airport felt refreshing, I had a sense of responsibility and I felt like an adult. I recognized a number ahead of me. That was the gate to my flight to Boston. A stewardess asked me for my passport and my ticket. I reached in my pocket and handed it to her. I was good to go. I entered the airplane and found my sit. As soon as I sat down, I have put my headphones in and played music. My eyes felt so heavy I immediately felt the effects of sleeping four hours and they just shut down. 

“Acknowleding one’s own flaws is the first step to improvement.”

As I opened my eyes I looked around me. I saw a tube to the plane and I thought we never took off, but in reality, we already landed. I thought I was still in Warsaw. Then people started standing up and picking up their belongings. I was confused, but it hit me. I’m finally in Boston. I got my bag and passport and started heading towards another security point. As I had completed everything including getting my luggage from the baggage claim, my next object was clear, exit the airport and find my driver for my school. I saw a guy with a board, which was labeled with my name. I stepped over to him and he asked 

-“Are you Jacob?”- I nodded and we started going to the bus that was supposed to take me over to the school.

I sat down on the seat on the bus. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single soul in there except me and the driver. I felt amazing. I had many questions for him and kept thinking to myself Am I going to handle being all alone? Am I mature enough?. I put my headphones on and looked outside the window the whole way over. All of a sudden the driver lets me know

-“We are here!”- I heard him and smiled back at him. At this point, I was stressed and kept on overthinking it. My dorm parent introduced himself to me, his name was Joe. Now all I was fascinated by the place and wanted to meet as many people as I could. In the meantime I got a bad thought always going through my head Will I be able to manage myself and do my chores and etc.? 

-What is your name? Are you doing any sports?- A future friend but now a stranger walked up to me and asked me. At the start, I was shy and closed to new people. I answered him and he told me to follow him. We walked out of the dorm and went through nice landscapes. As his hand pointed I realized he was giving me a tour. Over time I started opening myself to others and made plenty of new friends. I felt confident in myself. I also started to understand all the responsibilities I have as a teenager going into adult life.

A month passes by and I realise that I shouldn’t have been stressed so much as I thought. I made friends in the dorm and was one of the popular freshman dorm students in the program.

I came across a similar situation two years later, when I changed schools. While on the bus to the new school, looking around gave me clarity of my position. My junior year is going to be different, more difficult. Stress didn’t help it did the complete opposite. Am I going to make friends? Am I going to pass my classes? Am I mature enough?. Those questions kept on bouncing back and forth in my head. 

Looking back at my behavior two years ago and recently I started to realize that questioning yourself is what makes you improve. My brother recommended me a book by Simon Sinek. He wrote “We can’t be all good at everything. This is partly the logic behind having a team in the first place, so each role can be filled with the person best suited for that role and together every job and strength is covered”, and this quote helped me realize that you don’t have to be perfect, develop what you already are good at. I feel like acknowledging one’s own flaws is the first step to improvement. That way I learned to step up and take new risks because they are worth it. People learn from mistakes, which means it’s okay to make them as long as you don’t repeat them.