Finding out about CBYX and ExCEL Abroad

As I said in my previous post, finding out about CBYX was probably one of the most stressful, terrifying, and hilarious things that has happened to me this year. To start off I had been told by a fellow applicant that we should be heading back on March 20th and my interviewers told me around that time as well as many blog posts said that they found out around this time too. So I thought they would be that weekend. That weekend also happened to be my FFA state convention and the first day of convention was March 20th, the day I thought notifications were coming out. That night, I was sitting in the first general  session of the Oregon FFA state convention when I felt my phone buzz. I was getting a phone call. I had a what I like to call a mini heart attack and started to freak out a little bit (okay a lot) right in the middle of session. Looking at my phone I saw it was from Oregon and thought, this may be it! Later, after session was over I found out that IT WASN'T CBYX AFTER ALL! Just a telemarketer... I wasn't very happy.

   All throughout state convention, whenever my phone would buzz I would have that mini heart attack and only look at my phone to end up being disappointed. I feel bad for everyone who called me that weekend as I got very mad when it wasn't CBYX and was just another "what time are you leaving" question. Finally state convention was over on March 23rd and I still didn't know if I had gotten in or not. After driving home I ended up hanging out up at a friend's house with two of my friends. I decided as we started to watch a movie to check my Facebook only to see that ASSE CBYX notifications had started. I started to freak out. I didn't have service up there so there was no way for me to know. More people started to find out and I was getting nervous. My friends just told me to calm down and that everything would be okay. They even offered to drive me into town but I didn't want them to waste gas. After some time we ended up going down to the sports court to plan for a FFA event for a hour or so. After heading back up to the house I felt my phone buzz. I looked at it to see that I had some service and a missed phone call with a voicemail that was received around the same time as the other CBYX finalists. But my stupid phone wouldn't load the voicemail! After talking it over with each other one of the friends left and the other one drove me down where I could get service. We got there and stopped the car and I put the voicemail on speaker... I got in! 

   I screamed when I heard the word that I had received it. Apparently so loud that I hurt my friends ears. I freaked out some more and then called my parents. They were proud of me. I was super excited! I had basically accepted the fact that was going to college next year but this was new news that I was so happy to hear but even more terrified to accept.
 

     But right when I was done waiting and that I was for sure going to Germany, I received a notification in April that I had been chosen as a semi finalist for the ExCEL Abroad scholarship! After getting a little excited about that and finding out that there was only one other semi that I knew of I started to get nervous again. We didn't think it was too competitive  as it was a new program and didn't have very many applications! The next week I had an interview which was a Skype interviewed and consisted of typical study abroad questions  and a lot of those questions were based on my time in Argentina. I was pretty confident as this wasn't my first trip around but I didn't expect anything too great. But I had it wait, some more. Not fun. If I had a dollar for every time I checked my email throughout this whole study abroad scholarship process I wouldn't need a scholarship to go abroad. Heck, college may have been already paid for with that money!
 

   Today, on April 23rd, I found out via email that I had been selected as a finalist for the ExCEL Abroad program to Lithuania. I found out during school too, right in the middle of English class whose teacher ended being the one who wrote my recommendation. Honestly, I was not expecting it and I expected at the very most that I would be an alternate. I would be a part of the first group of kids going to Lithuania on this scholarship which is super cool! I haven't quite decided which I'm going to chose but I have until Tuesday to decide. There will definitely be a blog post on that. I'm super excited for this process and where I chose I know it will be the right place to go and that I will have an amazing and wonderful experience!