Made a decision. Oh Pace, Sunny sun on, I had vision life.
What's up everybody, We have a special guest in studio. It was
really hard to book her. It took months and months. We had to
get our people in touch with her people, but we finally made it happen.
We have LB and studio. Hello, Hi Helby. Hi. You
know what, it was kind of hard because between school and her job,
it's not always easy. It's not easy. Yeah, it's busy life,
busy life. Congratulations, be the first to say thank you on behalf of
everybody listening. I'm sure everybody is. I know a lot of people were
rooting for you and pulling for you, and uh, I don't know.
I knew you could do it. It wasn't I want. I want to
hope that when it was all coming, you know, I got this.
But right in being in the thick of it and having your mom and of
course like but as an outsider and hearing the updates, I'm like, oh,
yeah, she's got this. It's got it in the bag. But
it was rough going for a while, and I was trying to remember what
exactly where you were in the process when you came on last time. She
came on as kind of a cautionary tale of like not going for an impacted
major and not and you can. I think you told the story about going
on the tour of you see Santa Cruz and hating it and having made the
decision that you're going to try to do a community college for one year and
you were hopeful. But we couldn't remember if she'd even done her applications yet
redone her application. I don't think so, I was saying, I feel
like I hadn't. I feel like I had just started at here now see
I kind of feel like you had, because hadn't we already got you the
essay coach we might have? I feel maybe I was working on them.
I feel like I hadn't finished them, Like I feel like they weren't done.
Yeah. Maybe, Well, I'm going to tell you guys this about
LB. She's back, baby, her her optimism, her personality, She's
she's back. And what was it like Elbie when it was you know,
I know that it was gotta be hard and we don't have to go through
that like last year when your friends were leaving, but you know when you
enrolled in Pierced and everything like did you enjoy Did you go like, Okay,
I got I think I got this, Like I got yeah, get
it done in a year. Yeah, I mean like starting out, it
was definitely horrible. It was very isolating because I was so you know,
in my head I had convinced myself after starting I was like because I catastrophized.
So I was like, oh, this is going to be terrible.
I have no friends, Like, this is awful, it's gonna be I
thought it was going to be a lot more work than it was too.
I remember I think I was talking about that. I thought it was going
to be so much work, and I was just going to be drowning in
all of this homework. And I was going to just be at school and
at work, which was what I did in high school. So I was
very worried that it was going to be back in the high school cycle of
school work, sit at home and do homework and that was it. And
honestly, it wasn't super far from that. But it was not as bad
as I thought it was going to be, if that makes sense. Yeah,
where the classes did you find them hard? I was going to say
I ended up loving a lot of my classes. First of all, it
was really not that much work. I thought it was going to be a
lot of work. But professors are somehow more relaxed than high school teachers,
like different, they assigned slightly less, they give you more structure. Like
in high school. I found that they would just give us an assignment and
then it would be due in two days and we would have to sit there
and do it. Whereas my teachers, you have all your assignments, like
from the get go, you have due dates they give you. They'll send
you emails saying, hey, so that you haven't turned this in yet,
just let you know, Like for my exams and stuff like that, they'll
send me a little message being like, hey, just giving you a warning
you haven't turned this in yet. Want to give you enough time if you
forget to turn I've obviously forgotten to turn in a few assignments, but I
don't normally do that. And so instead of being like, oh, well
that's a zero, sorry about it, I'll email my teacher and they'll be
like, oh my gosh, no worries. I know that you don't normally
not turn in assignments. I just reopened it for you. Here you go
and I'll get full credit. So school itself has really not been nearly as
bad as I thought it was. And honestly, the classes that I take
in person are my sociology classes, which are my favorite classes. And I've
gotten very lucky with my both of my professors that I've gotten so it's like
fun going to class, Like I'll be sitting in class actually wanting to be
there, like high school, which I dreaded. That's great though, Well,
and you're studying what is interesting to you exactly, yeah, exactly,
and then so before you like, okay, before we go on to what
the next steps are, what is your dream job? Like if you had
your dream jobs. So I have always been very set on going into like
therapy or social work. Now I'm kind of not more unsure, but I
just know just from looking at other majors and like talking to even my mom
about stuff, I know that there's like a lot of other things out there
that I would want to do. So obviously in college, like I want
to like take some other classes that are just more fun and kind of let
me explore some other things. But for now, I definitely like want to
do something related to social work, especially with kids. I've always worked with
kids, worked at camp, worked at you know, laser Tag. I've
always wanted to do stuff with kids because I don't know why, but I'm
more patient with kids, and I enjoy working with them, even if they're
insane, which, speaking from experience, some of the craziest kids you know
in my cabins have been some of my favorites. So I don't know,
I feel like that's been always something that I wanted to work with. Ah,
that's great. A teacher too, that's true. That's true, although
or a professor and work with older kids. Work with older kids. Yeah,
tell me about, tell us about because our audio and has heard it
from me. But the process of okay, what once, I know you
went through. You went through kind of a dark period right when you were
having to do your applications. You did not want to. Yeah, it
was definitely just very I don't know what's the word. Is it undemotivating?
I don't know what they are. I don't know demotivating, anti motivating,
I don't know what the word is. But I had no motivation for a
while because I was still kind of getting out of that slump again. I'm
not gonna sugarcoat it. It's definitely not a good feeling seeing every single one
of your your friends posting on social media about the amazing time that they're having
in college, which you're not getting because I wasn't getting that. As much
as I don't think I like hated community college, but I definitely wasn't going
out all the time. There was definitely not that like social aspect of it
still, which I was worried about. And it was true, not it
wasn't worth it, totally worth it, but it was definitely I had a
lot of fomo seeing all of that. And the isolating part is that I
was doing all these applications for a second time, not knowing if it was
going to work out a second time. So in my head, there's like
two sides to me. One side of me is like, you have to
do really well on these applications because you do have a chance, and like
I know that it doesn't feel like it, but you're being told that you
can. You have an even better chance of getting into these schools. But
then the other side of me is like, well, what's the point,
Like if I do this, if I work this hard again and I'm faced
with this much disappointment. Again, it's going to be twenty times worse than
it was the first time. Like it's going to be awful. And I
was scared too, Yeah, as air mom. But also you had found
out that you couldn't tag Oh yeah, Santa Barbara. Yeah, and you
were not in the TAP program. Yes, that was the worst of it.
Because as we you've talked about, my mom is more of like a
she'll ask about stuff. She'll ask like about deadlines and things, whereas I
am more of a type of person. I have a little less anxiety about
that. So I'm the type of person where my counselor will tell me something
and I'll be like, great, I'm gonna listen to what they told me.
I'm going to do what they told me, and I'm going to expect
that it works out like that. And also I don't know what I don't
know, so I can't ask something that I don't know to ask about.
So I met with that. I will ask a hundred times right that someone
already said until they go, oh wait, maybe I was wrong. Yeah
I told you. See, I don't like to question them, like I'm
like, that's your job, girl, Like I trust you I trust you.
I trust that you're telling me the right thing. Even I shouldn't have
done that because my second counselor told me completely different stuff than my first counselor,
So that should have been my first red flag. But I was just
so like in my head and I was like, Okay, I need to
do it exactly as they're telling me. They're telling me. So my councler
told me to sign up for these honors classes. Right that we made this
whole. I was so proud of myself. I had made an appointment with
my counselor. We made a whole what they call an SEP student ed plan,
and I was sitting there and I was like, all right, I
got all my classes lined up. I'm gonna tag Santa Barbara. I have
my five honors classes lined up. That's called Transfer Alliance Admission Guarantee. Okay,
So just a brief. If you have a certain GPA and you take
a certain amount of classes, you're basically you can fill out this application and
basically get guaranteed admission to one of the UC's, but not only certain ones.
It's only Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sana Cruz Irvine.
Uh so it's not Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, right, okay?
Oh or Davis question mark right or Davis Davis. Oh you can tag
Davis. You can tag Davis. Right. But obviously Santa Barbara being my
top school last year, I was like hell yeah, Like, I'm going
to tag Santa Barbara, Like that's the best fallback plan. Like, even
if I don't get any it anywhere, I'm still going to be going to
the school that I wanted to the most last year. Right. So my
counselor was like perfect. She didn't mention anything about a separate application for the
tag, like, which I feel like would be something that you mentioned right
off the bat, Like I feel like you're like, yo, this is
super important that you fill this out. Make sure you fill this out asap.
Nothing about that, nothing, I mean, what is with I think
they go on autopilot or something and they just go from kid to kid to
kids and they forget or they expect that. They expect that. I know,
like they expect that. I well, that's why we hire them.
And I think the problem too, is that because I did it in a
year, I had a lot less time to kind of figure out all this
information. Like normally, throughout the year, instead of applying to colleges,
people in their first year are meeting with counselors every couple months to discuss their
plan for the next year. Whereas I was already in the next year.
I was in my only year, So I had a couple meetings with counselors
in the beginning, and then it was on to applications, like I had
no time, And so I found out that the tag deadline was September thirtieth.
I found this out in November. I was like going with my counselor,
and I had met with the first counselor. We had done the whole
plan, you know, I think I maybe met with the second one too,
and she went back and like changed a few things. She like tweaked
a few things, and she was like, Okay, on the on the
website for the school, you'll see a list of all of these honors classes.
You can cross check them too. These are all considered honors classes that
you're taking. And I was like, perfect, I'd gotten myself into the
honors program too, I'd done that earlier in the year. So and let
me just say the reason to be in the honors program. Is it has
nothing to do with the TAG. It's called TAG. Yes, and that's
the Transfer Alliance Transfer a preferential or something. You take honors classes and then
they you're in this program and it gives you are it gives you a second
major, It gives you priority admission to the school, and then it also
gives you on top of that, it gives you they they consider both of
your majors equally, so you have to submit an alternate major on your application.
UCLA will consider both of your majors equally, so if they don't like
you for one, they'll consider they'll consider you equally for the other one,
which, like I guess, doubles your chances if you have good coursework.
So I took all these classes that were supposed to the honors classes, and
then I met with a counselor third time, right before I was going to
be starting my applications, because I was like, Okay, I really need
to sit down and like figure out what I'm putting on my application, how
everything works, like how the TAG works, right, because to my knowledge,
the TAG is part of the UC application. And I go on there
and she I was like Okay, yeah, I'm going to be doing the
TAT program. And she's like, what are you talking about, Like you
how are you doing the TAT program? And I was like, oh,
well, you know, I mean on my ed plan, like all these
classes were honors classes. And she was like, they're showing up as regular
on your transcript and I was like, what do you mean, like they're
honors classes and she goes, yeah, well they they have a version that's
honors, but you have to sign up for that separately, like a different
way, oh my god, than just signing up for normal classes. And
I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Like are you serious?
You're telling me that? And it was too late. By the way,
I had already finished You'd already completed it. I had already finished some of
the classes, and I didn't I didn't have time to go back to add
more honors classes. There was no way. Basically, there was no way
for me to get the five honors classes, like this was the only way
if I had signed up for those originally. So I was like, oh
my god, like I can't. And then either that meeting or maybe a
few days later, another counselor was like oh yeah, you're not tagging.
The deadline passed in September, and I was like, what, like,
how I should have done more RESAR But how did I not know any of
this? Like I don't because I had started the TAG application, I think,
like way beforehand. But I thought that it was basically called the transferre
Admission Planner, So I thought that that was just like for me, Like
I thought that that was just helping me line up everything and I can like
cross everything. And then I actually submit the application on the application on the
UCY application. Nope, no, nope. So that day you were in
tears. Oh devastated. I mean you kept like getting knocked down, this
poor kid. Yeah, and then she found out that the TAG was also
not happening. So then she was like, oh my god, I have
no guarantee. This feels like free following. I don't know what's going to
happen. But your counselor had told you that your application looked good, but
we didn't and you could you could very feasibly get in ICE anyway, but
did we believe them. So I had a few counselors tell me, yo,
no, no, your application still looks really good, Like I wouldn't
worry too much. The counselor that broke the news to me about the TAP
program had even told me herself. She was like, you are probably the
best person for this to happen to, because there have been a lot of
kids that this have happened to that don't have that much course work, they
don't really know what they want to do, they're not that prep for their
major. Otherwise, they don't I don't want to say don't have a lot
going for them, because that just sounds brutal, but you know, she
was saying that, oh, this has happened to a lot of kids that
didn't have as high as a chance in the first place. So she was
like, your application still looks really good, especially for your major. So
I mean they would only consider you for this major anyways. So she was
like, I wouldn't be too worried. And then I had another counselor that
in the transfer center that was helping me on my application. She was telling
me, yeah, you know, like all of this looks really good together,
like blah blah blah. So I wanted to believe them, But at
the same time, my first college counselor had just been like, oh,
yeah, you're a gold girl, Like you're vine, your application looks really
good, you're super competitive, And then I got rejected from everywhere. So
I was like, I don't I don't know who I'm supposed to. I
don't know who I'm supposed to believe, Like, I don't know if I
should trust that. Then you didn't feel motivated for on the applications to do
the essays because you should redo essays yep. And we had a power struggle
about that. Yeah, what was the deal with these all these different counselors
are they They they're just at the center. Yeah, sob doct the ones
that I was talking to Originally. The problem is I don't have any like
assigned counselor at PEARCE. I did have one in high school, but I
don't have any assigned counselors in college. So I just kind of have to
schedule meetings and pray that I get somebody that knows what they're talking about.
Right, But for my actual application, I was kind of scared to do
this, but you know, thankfully my mom got me to do it.
I went into the transfer center a few times, and there's people in there
that are like literally just in there to look at your application and help you
with your application for transferring to UC's. Oh that's good. Now. We
had some arguments about it, like you need to go in there. Yeah,
I was tomorrow and all right. I was not having it. I
was like, oh my god, just please, like I can't like too
much. It's a lot bad because I was just like I knew it was
necessary, which is why I was so struggling, because I was like,
I need to hear about this because I know I'm not going to do it
if I don't. But I was like, I am so tired, so
tired of hearing about this all the time. I think I will literally rip
my hair out of my head. If one more person mentions application, application,
application, I was like, I can't do it. I I legitimately
can't do it anymore. Right, Like, I'm done. Let's take a
quick break and then come back and hear what happened. What happened. So
when you were having to do your essays, you were like, hell,
I don't want to do this. Yeah, but then we I got you
an essay coach. Yeah. Was that helpful? It was super helpful.
It was super helpful because not only did it. Not only was it just
helpful for tweaking my essays, but it also made me feel better about the
work I was doing because when she would give me a correction and then I'd
fix it and she'd be like, oh, that's perfect, or she would
say like this is really good. And also she had given me information that
I didn't know about before, so I thought I had unlocked some secret code.
I was like, Okay, here we go, Like now I know
what I'm supposed to be writing for. And it was a lot different than
I wrote my essays the first time. Like the first time, I kind
of tried to do some storytelling stuff and make them very like, I don't
know, like creative, creative, whereas I didn't realize that the UCS don't
really care that much about that, like they want your personality. They do
you can be a little funny in there, but they wanted to be structured,
like they just they want you to get to the point. They don't
want all this like big thing just to get to the point at the very
end, like they want you to give a little backstory, get to the
point, and then talk about the point a lot, which I didn't realize
and she gave me a lot of really good advice and just like corrections on
my essays that she would tell me stuff, and she also helped me build
some from like the ground like I originally had sent her. I would say,
like a draft of two of them, where one of them I'm pretty
sure I had bullet points. I hadn't even started writing it because that one
I was more unsure about the concept. The other ones I was more sure
about the concepts and less of the writing. That one. I was like,
I don't even I don't know if the concept and she was like,
no, I love it. This is going to make a really good essay.
Here's what you should talk about in this like, here's how you should
structure it. So I followed that super helpful. And what was her again,
Melissa, Melissa? I put her in our I put I posted her
information. I will actually and it's just that the the essay coach is just
just to strictly help you with the essay and then inexpensive by the way it
was. And you put Melissa Ameral, Yeah, Admiral Ameral, Yeah,
she has a website. I got her from my friend Laura. I got
listen, what I do is you know, I go to the go get
her mom, Yeah, and go who did you use? And I was
like, I need somebody who can help with the UC stuff. But she
she's an overall right, she has a whole college counselor thing, but you
don't. But it's not like one of these ones. It's not like the
ones that we used where it's for their whole process. They just they have
a thing where they just help you with essays. Yeah, and so my
kids are gonna need that at some point. Yeah. And they just had
a zoom. She just did it on her zoom, or you can just
send her the stuff and she would make notes. I was gonna say what
I did first is before I had a zoom with her, because I hadn't
fully written some of my essays yet. I wanted to save that for when
they were fully written. I emailed her all my drafts and she went on
like Google docs and gave me suggestions and comments and corrections and things like that.
And then I took all of them, wrote a draft for all the
essays, like I made sure that all four of them had drafts. And
then I hopped on a zoom with her and we chatted for like an hour,
and she just gave me tons of super helpful advice. She was like,
Honestly, I really like this essay, but I don't think that this
part is necessary. I think you need to expand more on this part and
take this part out completely. Or no, no, you took this part
out, but I think you should keep that in. Stuff like that super
helpful. So by the end of it, I'd had my essays checked by
an essay coach, I'd had them read over by one of the counselors in
the transfer center who was super nice. So by the end of it,
I definitely felt more confident with my essays because I had so many people that
were qualified to look over them and told me this is good work. But
so, so you get your applications in, it's only the end of November.
Yeah, now you got December, January, February, March, April.
What did that feel like and how did you get through that time?
I would say that the first month is very relieving, just because they're done,
so I'm not even thinking about where I'm getting in for like the first
month, I'm just like woo, yeah, no more applications, Like I
don't have to do that. Now I can just focus on my classes and
like work right, And I was like, that's all done. But then
that feeling kind of starts to wear off, and then it starts to get
daunting, and you're just like, oh, well, now I don't know
where I'm going and you feel very stuck for a while. Is the problem
I felt as my mom and I like to call it in limbo. I
was just kind of purgatory in between. I was like, I have no
idea where I'm going to college. I don't, And by no idea,
I don't, I have no clue. I don't even have an idea of
where I'm supposed to get in. I don't find out about any of these
college for colleges for months, and it started getting to the point where seniors
were finding out where they were going to college, and I was just hearing
all this stuff where I know it doesn't really apply to transfers, but it's
still scary to hear. Oh my god, every single one of these people
got rejected to the school like it's super it's super hard this year. I'm
just like, oh God, like, is that gonna apply to me?
Like I don't know where I'm getting in and on top of that, I
don't really have a lot of friends that are transferring at the same time as
me, So I really did not have that many people to talk about with.
I have a field, definitely have a few, but I didn't have
that many people to kind of deliberate with and be like in this together with,
if that makes sense. I have my one friend who I work with
too, who was also in it, and she was definitely the closest to
my situation because she did it in a year. She was doing the What
I'd say is the worst part is I found out that sociology is still an
impacted major, not as impact as psychology at all. But there's some websites.
One of the top majors still one of the top majors, which I
didn't realize. And there's this website called assist. Use it. Use it
for all listening. Use a sist if you want to figure this out.
Your counselors will go through it with you. But I use a cyst to
kind of give myself an idea of what courses I need to take. And
so they basically show you an agreement between your community college and the college that
you're looking at. So for me, I would go, oh, Los
Angeles Pierce College Articulation Agreement with University of California, Los Angele and it tells
you the classes that you need for your major requirement that you need in order
to transfer, and it tells you what classes that you correlate to what classes
at piers. And at the top, when you're looking at your major,
you have to do it by major. It said in all caps, this
is a highly selective major. And I was like, oh god, oh
my god, oh god, not again. I was like, not again.
I cannot do this. So it was definitely a bad feeling because it
was hard to feel confident, especially because of what happened last year. I
didn't know the feeling of like getting into a school that I'd really wanted to
go to. I'd never had that happen to me before, so it was
very much just kind of felt like my impending doom of like, oh so
then so, so the first one comes in, and that was San Diego
State. Yes, I found out about SSU while I was going to Beyond,
going to my rave in my teeny little outfit in my little airbnb with
my friend and she's in the middle of doing my hair and I get an
email from SCSU and it was on my phone and oh my god, my
heart dropped to my feet. I was like, oh God, this is
it. Oh God, this is it. I was like, if I
get rejected, it's over. It's over. I was like, I'm not
if I get rejected, I'm not getting in anywhere. Like that was my
mindset. That that was true, but that was my mindset. I was
like, it's over for me if I don't get in here. And I
got rejected last year, so I was like racing myself. So, you
know, I go through the email, I open it. I didn't even
think I was going to be able to see it because I don't know my
login off the top of my head, so I thought I was going to
have to log in. But you open the email and I was like I
was with my friend Kira. I was like, Kira, Kira, Kira,
Kira Secu just came out, Oh my god, Oh my god,
and she was like, are you gonna open it? And I was like
I have to. I have to. So I opened it. You know,
I click it and instead of saying we got to inform you, there's
like a little video and I was like, oh, and I click it,
and you know those little green screens that you get at the beginning of
a trailer, like a movie trailer, where it says like viewer discretion advice
yea. Instead of viewer discretion advice, it says a little viewer excitement advised.
And I was like, I was like and then it goes and it's
like, congratulations, You've been admitted, and I just draw. I was
like, oh my god, I got it. Natsu and Kira's like jumping
up and down and I FaceTime my mom and I'm like, Mom, I
got a nastys you. I was like, oh my god. I was
smiling the rest of the day. I was like, I'm going to college.
Finally, It's finally a bit of good news. But then a roller
coaster. Because roller coaster. I didn't tell me this until after so like
a wait, a week or two later. Yeah, I got weightlisted at
cal Poly Slow, and I was like wow, Like wow, if I
got weight listed at cal Poly Slow, I'm not And I was really sad
about it, but I was just kind of leaving it for a bit,
and then I was like really sad. One day my mom was like,
there's something wrong with you, like what are you good? And I was
like, yeah, I got wait listed at cal pually Slow, so I'm
not really feeling hopeful for call it. And don't get me wrong, cal
Pauly Slow is a super hard school to get into. But I was like,
if I get weight listed at cal Poly Slow, what are my results
going to be for like UCLA or I didn't. I wasn't super set on
Winni Berkeley, but as much as I tried not to, I had all
my eggs in the UCLA basket, Like that's all I could think about.
Yeah, especially because I didn't have a tee anywhere. I couldn't really think
about Santa Barbara being my fallback because I didn't even know if I was getting
in there. So I was just like, oh god, oh wow,
this is not a good sign. This is really not a good sign.
So that was Meanwhile, I was trying to get her to get excited about
going to STSU Accepted Students Day and she was like yeah. I was like,
yeah, I'm going to try to get the day off of work and
I was like try, bitch, you better get the day off work.
We're going this is gonna be. And then I was trying to get her
excited by saying like you're, uh, my friend's daughter that you know,
like she's they want to go too. And we was like ool, and
I said, well, you don't seem excited about it, and she was
like, no, I am. It's like yeah, but what you were
you just weren't feeling it. You just was just very very very deep down.
I was just like, I don't know if I want to go here,
Like I was just like I knew that I should have probably seen it,
but I was just like I don't know. I was just like I
don't know, man, like I don't know. I think she was feeling
like I'm so tense about finding out about these other schools that I just want
to know what my actions are before I see it, before I try to
even try to get myself excited about something I want to know. It was
definitely very much that feeling. I was just kind of like, Okay,
I need to find out about these other schools. I can't even focus on
looking at a school because I have no idea what the right because none of
the UC said come out yet. So it's like those are the schools that
I want to go to personally, no, I was like, I'm San
Diego and cal Poly are amazing schools. But I was like, I you
to end up at a U see, that's just where I want to go.
And so it was very hard to kind of be like super excited about
going to SCSU because for some reason, as as much as I hate to
say this, a part of me is like, if I see SCSU,
that might be the school that I end up at, and then I'm not
going to end up at like a school that I really want to go to.
Yeah, I was like, I'm worried that I'm going to go and
I'm not going to be super excited about it, and it's like not going
to live up to everything, and then I'm going to end up going there
and then I'm going to be more excited. Like my biggest thing is what
if I don't get into these schools and then I know I'm already going there,
so then I can go there knowing that's my school and make myself get
excited about it. I was just like, I don't know, like it's
going to be hard for me to like be super super super into the school
if I just am fully the entire time I'm there about oh well, what
if I get into Santa Barbara and then I'm going there and said, you
know what am I going to be? Probably didn't help too that, Like
first for cal Poly Slow, I was like, oh my god, this
could be a totally great school for you, like it's really cute and San
Luis Obispo. And then and then when she didn't get in, I was
like, oh, that school sucks, Like you not want to go there?
Like I don't know why. It was cray Z. I was like,
it's like the smallest city everybody. She was like, you don't want
to go there, girls, you don't want to go there. Girl.
I was like, where did all this hate come from? I was like,
what happened to being like, yes, Slow, Oh my gosh,
you're gonna love it there if you go there, like we should go visit.
And then she was like yeah, no, that's cool. She was
like that school sucks. So then okay, so like now it's like a
week one week later if that yeah, and we irvines coming out. Yes,
this story is so funny. So my mom was out of town in
San Diego and I had no I tour the school go herself. She took
it up on ourself to go look at SCCU. She was sending me all
these bit knockidding But that was when I went to the writers Writers. So
I had no idea that Irvine was coming out, and but I did.
She did, and she didn't tell me. Said you tell her about your
investigating on our page on the Reddit page. Oh yeah, she had.
She she didn't mention anything, not purpose, but because I would try to
talk to her about college and I would just be like, no, mom,
it really stresses me, like shut it down, shut it down about
college all the time. So I was like, Okay, I gotta keep
my mouth shut. I'm stressing her out. But but meanwhile I'm checking Reddit
every five minutes and everybody's like her Vine out. So I had no idea.
And these schools they don't send you an email sometimes until like a while
after sometimes the notification doesn't pop up. And I didn't know Irvine was coming
out, so I wasn't like checking my email. I had checked my portal
that morning, but they didn't have a date on the portal, so I
was like, okay, whatever, and the portal hadn't been down, and
normally portals will go down before they release all of them. So I was
like, okay, whatever, like just doing my daily portal check. It's
not happening today. So I go to work, you know, five o'clock.
I'm at work, go through my whole shift, get home, go
to bed, blah blah blah, blah blah. And that's when I was
with Robin in San Diego, so sad because I had I had given myself
a little denial where I was like, Okay, maybe she didn't check it
before she went to work, but now it was midnight. I was like,
she's been home. There's no way if she if she, if she
got in, she would have would have heard. She would have facetimed me.
She wouldn't have cared that it was midnight. She would have been I
would Alley Center text, yeah, probably called. So I woke up the
next day and I was like, it's over. So I wake up in
the morning, it's probably like ten thirty ish, and obviously, you know,
maybe me. First thing I do is roll over and pick up my
phone because I'm like, all right, what have I missed? After sleeping
in, and I see on the cover of my phone on my notifications,
like a notification from the admissions office, and I can't see the text of
it, but I just see like the thing that's like newly admitted Irvine students.
And I thought that it was just like giving me because you get a
lot of those emails that give you false hope where they'll start emailing you and
they'll be like, congrats on applying to the school, congrats on sending your
application to the school. We're so excited to give you your response in two
weeks. Here's some information about our school. So I thought it was one
of those emails. I thought they were being like, okay, like here's
what you're gonna do if you get into the school. I open it the
email and I'm just like whatever, and it says congratulations on becoming an ant
eater, and I was like what. And I look below it, and
right below it is an email from the evening before that I didn't see that
was like there's been an update, And I check my portal and it's like
congratulations, we're whatever, happy on behalf of blah blah blah. You have
been accepted to you see your Vine as a social And I was like,
oh my god, and I shot about of bed and I ran to my
dad who was outside on the couch, and I was like, why should
I got into you? See your mine? I got into you see your
mine? And I I can't remember did I like? Take your mom's crying
and she's like, she didn't get it. She didn't, she didn't.
Well, let's take a quick break and then tell you what happened. Okay,
we're back. Yeah, I'm I'm at the book signing table. John
sends me a text. I hadn't looked at my phone. Then John had
sent me a text and he said, uh, got some news. And
I had already told him. I said, Elbe didn't get into Irvine,
so don't ask don't about it. Don't ask her about because yeah, don't
bring it up. Don't ask her because I know she didn't get in.
So John goes she had some news. So I'm like, I know,
I know she didn't get in already, and he's like, well, she's
feeling emotional and she needs her mom. And I was like, oh,
oh my god, yeah, and he was like yeah, no, like
she has some news to break and then you called me right Well, then
I looked at my phone and I had had texted my body. I didn't
realize that my dad was doing a bit, so I'd already obviously texted her
and been like, pick up the phone. I got into Harvine. I
got her Vine. Yeah. She was like, your bitch got into Irvine.
I think I said that, Yeah you did. I was like,
hey, yes, he got it Irvine. I was so excited and that
that definitely was like a game changer, like that gave me some hope because
I was like, hey, this wasn't all for nothing. You got into
a super hard you see that you got straight up rejected from last year like
that you almost had no even hope for last year because I was like,
that's one of the harder ones to get into. I was like, I'm
not even getting into Irvine, Like I can say goodbye to that. Oh
my god. So then okay, So so there was a while, like
two weeks between Irvine and the rest of the schools there. Yeah, there
was like two weeks. So then Berkeley was next. Berkeley was next,
and I knew that Berkeley was coming out, and I was like, and
my mom and I were just sick to our stomachs the entire day. We
were like it's coming out at five, and my mom was like, we
went to the mall, you know, to take our minds off of it,
just doing We're just girls, So we went to do some girly shopping
to take our minds off of this impending doom of Berkeley. And we were
in the car and my mom was like, all right, we can't have
any false positivity. Berkeley is a super hard school to get into. The
if you don't get into Berkeley, that doesn't mean you're getting rejected from other
schools. Okay, Like we were both basically said, on the fact that
I was not getting into Berkeley, I didn't have like for it. We
were not. We were not. I was still really nervous. Yeah,
I was so nervous. So we didn't know what time it was coming out.
We were like, oh, maybe it's coming out three, four,
maybe five, because they just say Berkeley. They're bitches, so they just
say, yeah, you'll hear late afternoon, you'll hear whatever that means,
whatever that means. So we were like, Okay, this could be anywhere
from like three to like six o'clock for all we know. So I we
get home from the mall, I'm just kind of like, you know,
in a mood, laying in my bed, just like genuinely being like,
all right, so this is probably going to ruin my work shift. It's
chill though, It's it's cool. We'll get through it. And my mom
runs in my room at like three three o'clock almost and she's like, so,
Berkeley's out, Berkeley's out, deep breaths, Berkeley's out. I'm feeling
nervous about this, she said, Berkley's out. And I was like,
oh god, Like I just got a wave of just like oh no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no no,
no, no no no. I was like, oh god. So I
opened my computer. I'm like going on my portal, and of course it's
not up there yet. Ah. It like got released a little later,
like and by a little later, I mean like four minutes. But I
was refreshing and refreshing and refreshing and refreshing, and it was just like your
application is currently under review. I was like, oh my god. So
then we thought so then Lbie was like, are you sure. Yeah,
So I'm like, let me go back to my boss reddit. So she
read back to her computer and like, from her computer sends me screenshots of
Reddit of people being like I can't see mine, but other people being like,
it's out, it's out, and a lot of people were like,
eh, I got it, like future bear, you know. And so
she comes back in my room, and probably like four minutes after she'd originally
come into my room, I refreshed the page one more time and it changed
and it was like, see your status update. And I was like,
I'm like nervous just thinking about it, Like I have a panm my stomach
just thinking about it. I am sitting there with my laptop and my way.
I had not good hopes because we thought, because because people had already
gotten nine, we kind of were suspicious that that maybe first. Yeah.
So I was just like, oh god, I'm not gonna let this room
my day. I'm not gonna let this room my day. I click see
your status update. All I see is confetti and congratulations, and I screamed,
like I screamed, bloody murder. I was like, I got it
up, Berkley, and my mom just starts also screaming, and so we're
just like litle five year old girls, like jumping up and down. We
run out of my room and my dad is like what the hell is going
on? And he like sits up from the couch. He's like, what
are you guys a lot to turn out the couch and it's our office couch.
He likes to lay and do work on his back and hang out with
Pepo. Yeah, it's like Pepo spot too. But he like stands up
and he's like, oh my God, like are you okay? And I'm
just like jumping up and down, and I'm like, I got it up
Berkeley. I caught it up Berkeley, and I am just screaming that statement
is amazing. And then I started I was gonna say, then I start
crying because I was just like, oh my God, like, oh my
God, I got it into Berkeley, Like I can go to Berkeley,
Like even if I don't get in anywhere else, I'm going to Berkeley.
Like that's crazy. Right. It was the best feeling ever. It was
amazing, amazing because it was such it was such excitement and like relief at
the same time, because I was like, oh my God, like all
of this work, all of this like sadness and despair was not for me
to get rejected. So then like forty five minutes later, oh my gosh.
So I'm like, you know, still just basking in my Berkeley acceptance,
and I'm putting all my makeup for my shift because I have to leave
soon. And I was like, I need a serve face for my work
shift so that I can go in there and be like, guys, I
got into worklee, and I always like have my phone like on my sink
so I can multitask and watch TikTok's while I do while I do my makeup,
And a little drop down from my email pops up and it's like,
there has been an update to your status from you see san Diego. And
I was like, what the hell. So I'm like, oh shit,
san Diego's out. So I like walk out of my bathroom concealer half blended.
I'm like, san Diego's out, So I bring my my No,
my laptop was already out on like my dining room table, and I go
through. I log into my portal like okay, okay, I got into
Berkeley. So even if I got redrected, who cares? Click it more
confetti, more congratulations. I was like, what the hell, Oh my
god, I got into San Diego. So I was like, that's like
three for three on the UCS like, oh my gosh. So I was
just like on clad nine walking into work, I was like, oh my
god, like this is crazy. I was like, this is like the
cherry on top, Like I cannot believe this is happening. Like I feel
like I'm dreaming, Like there's no way. So that was Friday. That
was Friday? Was it? The following on Tuesday? Wednesday after that,
Tuesday was Santa Barbara. We had known that because they were like, it's
April nineteenth. So I was like, okay, So Tuesday rolls around and
I was like, Okay, this one I really care about because I if
I don't get into UCLA, I still really liked Santa Barbara because Berkeley is
obviously, like quote unquote statistically a better school, but Santa Barbara I just
like, I really really really loved from the get go. I totally saw
myself at that school. I really like vibed with the school. And you
have friends there too, right, I actually don't. Haven't. I have
friends at Berkeley, but I don't have friends there. Oh but do you
know what Natalia is doing. She's going to Santa Barbara City College. Oh
my goodness, transparent Yeah, that's awesome. Is she there right now?
Is she living down there? She's gonna live down there. That's so fun.
A lot of people do that, a lot of people have done that.
I've heard great things about it because you basically go to you see Santa
Barbara. If you're at Santa Barbara Community College, like you're basically like socially
you're at you See Santa Barbara. I've heard it's great. Yeah, But
I was just like, yeah, I really I would love to go to
Santa Barbara. I would definitely consider Santa Barbara, even even over Berkeley.
I was like, I would consider between the two. So, you know,
we did the whole we did the whole thing. Did we go to
the mall? No, not for not for Santa Barbara, not for sorry,
not for Santa Barbara. So it came out right at three and my
mom wasn't even home, and I just had my portal open and I knew
it was out because it was like it'll be open after three on this time,
so I knew it was out, but I was like, I'm gonna
wait. So my mom walks in the door probably like three oh five,
So I wasn't waiting for a while and I'm like, okay, came and
open it. I opened it again. Evatuala said, I was like,
oh my god, like, oh my god. I was like so excited.
I got into Santa Barbara. I was like this is amazing, like
this is fantastic. And then we thought silly, yess. We thought that
UCLA was coming out the next day. So Reddit thought. Reddit thought our
fault. Jesus read it comes on, come on now, give us the
right information. So we thought it was coming out on Wednesday. So we
were like, okay, cool. So Wednesday rolls around. My mom and
I were like, okay, we have to go to the mall again create
we got to recreate the Berkeley acceptance. Oh okay, never mind, never
mind. This is later. So we go through and we're like refreshing Reddit
too. Once we get home because everybody's freaking out doesn't come out. We
find out that on leap years, UCLA comes out on a Friday. Only
leap years twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, twenty twenty four. Wow, every
other year it comes out on Wednesday. Every other year come out on Friday.
Yeah, because they want to be different and cool, because they're UCLA
don't resit me, please, I still want to get your school. But
we were like, it's it's not it's not coming because we were like,
if it's not three, it's five. So it didn't come out at three.
So five o'clock rolls around nothing, We're like and then we heard from
their their transfer website that it was going to come out. It was on
Friday, So that's Friday. Friday rolls around, the rest of Wednesday's terrible.
Thursday's terrible because all I can think about is uc La. That is
all I can think about. It is consuming me. I'm like, oh
my god, I can't do this. And so Friday rolls around. We
went. We decided we've been to them all and it wasn't having the same.
So we decided to go get our hair done. We got our haircuts
instead, just to kind of ease the mind, you know, because Sunday
Day haircut. Anyways, the bangs were too long, so we went and
got our hair cut, and I was just like, God, we were
like sick with nerves, sive of us, sick because again, as much
as I tried not to have all my eggs in one basket in my mind,
mentally I was going to. I was like, it's you, Cela
or nothing, Like, I'm going to be devastated and it's going to take
me fifty seven business days to recover from this before I can't even think about
where else I'm going. So you say your rolls around. I'm on the
phone with my friend who's also waiting on UCLA, and I'm like, oh
my god, like I don't know what to do, like cause we thought.
We also didn't know whether it was coming out at three or five.
So three o'clock rolls round. It's not out, so we're like, okay,
this is the moment. It is coming out at five pm. So
I was like, oh god, oh God, like I'm so I've never
been more nervous for anything. I wasn't even this nervous for Berkeley, Like
I was just like, oh my god, like I can't handle this.
It's so it was so bad. I was like so nervous, sitting in
my bed waiting, like shaking while I'm holding my phone like refreshing Reddit because
she she plagues me with the Reddit. So I'm like refreshing Reddit to see
all these people being like can you see La release their decisions whatever? So
finally it's out and I, you know, bring my laptop to the room.
I'm like, all right, this is it. Like if I don't
get in, it's okay. And this is what I had forgotten to mention.
I had gone on Berkeley the night before because I was looking at my
financial aid package and I found out the night before UCLA that I got into
Berkeley as a Spring twenty twenty five admit and not a Fall admit. So
I was like, I'm not going to Berkeley if I get rejected from UCLA,
because I am not doing another semester here. I'm like, I'm going
to Santa Barbara. So I knew where I was going if I got rejected,
but that was super disappointing because I was like, oh God, like
if Berkeley took me as a Spring applicant, is UCLA only takes Fall applicants,
So I have less of a chance of getting in there because they don't
take Spring. So it's either they want me for Fall or they don't want
me at all. So I have my computer open and my mom is like
standing next to me, and I'm sure most people on here saw the video,
but she's standing next to me, and I was just like salling.
I was like, I can't, I don't, I can't. And then
your friend Bella Julie's daughter. Yes, Bella was like, well, no,
she hadn't talked to me about it yet. I thought she told you
to make the video. Oh oh, yes, she had told me to
film a video. So I like brought my phone up on my computer,
barely thinking about it. And she was like, okay, if it's bad
news forgetting delete, delete delete right, get rid of it. So I
set my phone up and I'm like shaking it. I'm like, okay,
click it. I just see at the top the little hashtag congre It's like
hashtag bruin bound. It says congratulations. Didn't even process that. I saw
that, and I didn't even process it. I had to read what it
said. I just read congratulations, and I was like, oh my god.
I was like, I'm going to UCLA. And that's when I just
started jumping up and down, screaming, freaking out. The best moment of
my entire life, highlight my whole life. Like I was just like,
oh my god, oh my god, we're right there with you when we
saw that video. Do you think you felt that way? Even more because
of all the insane amounts of disappointment you had before. Yes, because it
was just like, as I said, it was so hard to feel confident
about what I was doing when it did not go right last time, because
that really showed me. I was like, there is no guarantee at all.
Even if you are a good student, you get good grades, you
have extracurriculars, you write good essays, right, you still could not get
in? Yes, And did I have a solid feeling ish because I got
into other schools. Yes, But still I was like, this is UCLA
we're talking about. Like I can get rejected from UCLA and get into Santa
Barbara. So I was just like, oh my god, I was like
I can't. Hey, let's take a couple of questions before we before we
wrapped the show. Perfect, Okay, Well, Carrie Kibler just says,
just tell her we of her and value her opinion. Christina has a question,
but uh, it's irrelevant. She wasn't if you're going to commute or
stay on campus, you're you're sayings and court course for sure. Lisa Smith
Hamilton wants to know what advice would you offer a junior heading into their senior
year. I would definitely say, do not overwork yourself for senior year,
because that's what I did. I added a bunch of classes that were kind
of unnecessary, you know, AP physics whatever. Did They look okay,
sure, but I didn't really do well in the class, so in the
end it didn't really help me out that much. Do not like overwork yourself
too much in senior year, like, still try because again, if you
were talking college college talk, they're mostly looking at junior year and sophomore year.
They're not really looking as much at your senior year. So if you
like feel confident about what you did in junior year, try to obviously keep
up the things that you were doing, Like if you're at a job or
you do volunteering, or you have an internship or whatever you're doing, obviously
keep that up. But don't like overload yourself with classes and don't stress out,
and don't applied with a super impacted major. Right, do not do
that at all. I would not recommend I want to. I want this
is not Alisa also wants to know who's your favorite sibling. Don't answer that.
Also, I get no I'm saying I get asked this at work,
and I don't have a favorite sibling and nobody believes me like you like them
both. I like them both in different ways. Yeah, I think this
is really important. And this just happened in our house. Elbie was giving
some advice to Xander, who's really faking out about Oh yeah, his AP
has an AP test on Wednesday, and I thought Albe gave him some really
good advice. And oh, this is a P season right now, so
you guys are going to hear this, and some of your kids are going
to have AP test coming up. Please take it from me, who took
ten aps. They don't matter at all. They do not matter. Don't
don't stress about your AP test. They do not matter. If you're gonna
go the route that I did, they matter even less because I although they
did matter a lot, I'm saying, don't get you don't have to get
fives on all your AP tests. I see senior year, I used the
apiece that I use, got threes. Senior year got some threes. Junior
year got a three. Sophomore year never got a five on an AP test.
By the way, I did not get any fives. I got threes
and fours mostly fours. But I also, especially senior year, got all
threes. They really don't matter that much. They really don't. Like colleges
are not going to deny you because you did not get a five on an
AP test. That that is like not something that they're looking at as much.
People are always like, oh, you have to get straight fives to
like get into a good college. No, you don't, right, if
you have something else going for you, if you're a well rounded student,
if you do well in the actual class itself, you're fine. Find it's
a good note to go out on, like just my biggest thing. And
it's hard to listen to in the moment, obviously when you're going in taking
the test, especially if it's your first, your second AP test, it's
hard to not be nervous, but you just have. You have to go
into it being like, I know what I know. There's no way for
me to know more than what I know, and it's gonna be fine.
And there's probably gonna be stuff on the test that I don't know, and
guess what, that's fine because they're designed to be like that, so it
doesn't matter. Well, it's awesome. Yeah, so happy for you,
Thanks for joining us, giving us the whole experience. Alb, I think
you should be a college counselor when you grow up. Dream job, dream
job. Forgot to mention that she could. I told her she should do
tours at u c l A. Yeah, you should and tell people about
her experience. I would do that, and my friend does that too.
It says it's really fun. So you have to come back and tell us.
After you get settled in at your dorm, I will back and tell
us how college life, college life. All right, alby, thank you
for coming so much. I love you, we love you. Congratulations,
thank you so much. All right by, beds letting go