As a high school senior, I did what typical 17-year-olds do, I started applying to my ideal schools. At the top of that list was Syracuse University. The prestigious communication school, Newhouse, was the reason why I felt Syracuse was my dream school. Growing up, I always wanted to be a Sports Broadcaster so it made sense to me to go to a school with such impressive alumni: Mike Tirico, Bob Costas, and Sean McDonough just to name a few. Syracuse's campus was also three hours from home, which I felt was the perfect distance from home. It allowed me the independence and responsibility of living on my own, while also being close enough to my parents in the case of an emergency. In addition to this, my cousin, Eli, was a Syracuse undergrad at the time, so I would also be able to spend a lot of time with him. I was accepted into 'Cuse's Broadcast and Digital Journalism program and was set to start out my undergraduate degree.
Syracuse was everything I hoped it would be. I was getting hands-on training both in the classroom and through extracurriculars. The campus was beautiful and I could feel my journalism skills enhancing by the day. However, as I progressed in my education, I started to lose focus on other things that matter to me. I always say that faith, family, and football are the most important things to me and in that order. At 'Cuse I was no longer living by those values; my faith had become an afterthought and I no longer was putting in the effort needed in both platonic and romantic relationships. I always knew that for me to get where I wanted to be in my career, there would be pressure on other aspects of my life.
With Syracuse's prestige also came a hefty check, this along with the aforementioned issues, made me start to entertain the idea of transferring. Once I had finally come to grips with the fact that for me to get where I wanted to be professionally, I would have to sacrifice being the Christian and human I wanted to be in the present, the next question became so what was I going to do?
Thoughts such as teaching, enlisting in the military, or taking a gap year all crossed my mind. Then I remembered Mercyhurst University had a prestigious Intelligence program that my brother had graduated from years prior. I assumed I would be accepted again as I was the year prior so this all of a sudden seemed what my future entailed. Although this decision was hard and left me unsure about the future, I knew that I was where I was supposed to be.
I was set to attend Mercyhurst University for my sophomore year of undergraduate.
- Hayden
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