Dear UMD,
I’m not ready to graduate.
It’s hard to believe it’s only been three years since I first stepped foot on your campus as a Terp. When I was applying to colleges in high school, you weren’t even on my list. But when I finally visited, as a community college student, I fell in love with you.
With your atmosphere, your size, your course offerings, and your journalism program – all of it told me this is the place for me.
Sure, transferring was a process I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Missing the March 1 priority deadline by 10 minutes meant waiting about three months before I got my acceptance letter, which my mom framed and hung. Pretty soon, she’ll be replacing that with my diploma.
Getting into my major was also a chore. You can’t become a journalism major without taking history of journalism and the first news reporting class. And then you can’t pass the news reporting class without passing the math test with 100 percent, which I managed to do only on the last test of the semester. I was fully prepared to change my major going into that test but the stars aligned and here I am.
I didn’t know it back then, but I was entering one of the top 10 journalism programs in the country, a program that would teach me how to write well and write quickly, to consider the ethics of what I’m doing, and to stay curious. Every journalism teacher I’ve had has honestly been great and knowledgeable; I can’t say the same about other programs.
And if I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have expanded my mind to learn about racism, classism, homophobia and other -isms that impact people’s lives. Your classes taught me about intersectionality, the connection between oppressive institutions, which now informs my work going forward. I came to you without an idea of what kind of career I wanted to pursue and now with endless options, I have a clearer path ahead of me.
Here, I’ve had the chance to cover the Maryland presidential primary, protests in Baltimore, and panels on topics like hip hop’s role in juvenile justice. I’ve learned about predictors of depression in Asian American college students and what possible solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be. I’ve been surrounded by hardworking students who are passionate about their futures and the “fearless ideas” that you encourage.
You might not be the perfect school, but you’re pretty darn great.
I might not be ready to graduate with my bachelor, but when it’s time to get my masters…who knows?
Love,
Deepa