Acceptance of the James Bradley Scholarship

Hello all,
The title may be misleading......as I did not win the scholarship. It was, and still is a great disappointment considering the unbelievable amount of time and effort I contributed to the application and overall scholarship process. I spent over a month and a half, (very, very, very) hectically completing the scholarship/application process, with the sacrifice of many sleepless nights/early mornings and a suckish Geometry, Honors English, and Biology grade.
However, I am still absolutely proud of myself for all of the effort I did put into what became a very long pending process, waiting for results, and thanks to much support from the amazing people I love at Essex High School, along with the very appreciated encouragement from fellow to-be Japan exchange students, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. Of course, being rejected totally sucks. But ultimately, I was not rejected at all. I was accepted into the regular program, which means I am going to Japan.....
so.I.believe.that.is.a.mega.accomplishment.to.be.totally.proud.of.


This whole phenomena feels so strange, though. I anxiously waited for two whole months to be given the results of the scholarship, yet it literally feels as if I only sent in the application last week. So much has happened during the time when I waited so anxiously, almost apprehensively for the day where I would be told if I was awarded the scholarship I was so determined to achieve. Time actually "flew", and now I am only 3 months from going to Japan for a year. I began the application in August, the moment I returned from Japan, and that was 4 months ago. Truly unbelievable.


Now I will move on to what exactly happened within the last several hours (in a delicious nutshell):
My dad picked me up from my friend's house at about 4:50 PM, in a mad rush to the post office right across the street from our house which closes at 5 PM. Considering the car ride home usually takes a good 15 minutes or so, I was quite the opposite of tranquil (love this word). We arrived at 5:03-ish, the post office was thankfully still open, I ran to our mailbox/location where it is possible to extract mail, to find a letter from Youth For Understanding. A friend of mine told me at school this morning, that a big letter is a "good thing, as that is what they do in college" <-- . Taking that in mind: this was a small letter, and sure enough it gave me a long spiel on how I was not selected as a scholarship recipient, and I was among many qualified applicants etc. It was/is upsetting! I have many reasons to think that I should have won, therefore I feel that I truly deserved the scholarship, practically. Being rejected is not fun at all, especially when one is intensely serious regarding the outcome. Despite all this, however, I will stay positive, the scholarship gave priority to certain schools and people with backgrounds relating to the war(not making an excuse), plus I was accepted into the regular program, which is what I originally always desired. Keeping a positive and open mind at all times, which is a major rule I stressed in my application, is key. I shall look at the bright side of affairs, as I quite obviously am extremely fortunate to be able to study in Japan for a year, with a 8MP webcam, laptop, and marvelous digital camera :O

Thank you so much for reading!! I know this was more of a negative post at the beginning, so I am sorry if that was at all awkward to read. I am/was also quite rushed throughout the process of writing this post as I have an astonishing amount of "stuff" to attend to. Oh, and to M.N, I did not mean to accuse you of anything. My lovely Asian goddess.

STAY POSITIVE EVERYONE! I will post again updating you all on the phone conference happening this Friday from 3-5 PM! I am so excited!! :D




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