"So, I want to go to Australia. Study abroad." Those were my words to Mark Matson, the academic dean at Milligan College, one day in the "McCormick Dining Center" (also known as the cafeteria, caf for short) on the first floor of Sutton, the glorious building that sits at the top of Sutton Hill, overlooking most of campus. Sutton is a girls' dormitory. It has had some renovations fairly recently, such as that wonderful "Dining Center," so I suppose I should have been thankful for the aesthetically pleasing design on the first floor--never mind that the dorms themselves aren't what one would call "nice" and that the actual food is mediocre at best. There have been a handful of times that I have enjoyed sitting in that building: freshman year, I loved getting to dinner early and staying late every evening. I would eat with a large group of friends, most of whom were female, which led to the nickname of "The Harem." And in those days, I'd never have imagined I would be going to Australia just a couple years later. Oh, how the times change.
Over time, I became disgruntled with "The Harem," tiring of the group atmosphere--the constant jokes were fun to an extent, but I slowly lost interest in such regularity of meetings. Thus by the end of the fall semester of my sophomore year, I had ceased arriving to the caf early and leaving late. It wasn't anything against any single individual; I had just changed. I found a deep desire growing in myself for something different. And meanwhile, my sister was off studying in Cairo, Egypt. This put ideas in my head about going abroad. It wasn't that I wanted to copy my sister. I simply enjoy travel and my sister's semester abroad gave me a sturdy belief that I would be able to convince my parents that my own pilgrimage would be a good idea.
Thus, around the time that my sister was returning to the United States, I began suggesting the idea that I, too, go abroad. As for where I wanted to go, I turned to my passion for the answer: theatre. You see, I had no intention of going abroad solely for the experience of going abroad. If I was going to go through with it, I wanted it to be as useful for my training and growing in theatre as possible. I looked through all of the Best Semester programs offered--Best Semester is an organization run by the CCCU, of which Milligan College is a part--and found that it just so happened Australia, a place that certainly sounded pretty cool to me at the time, offered a theatre program. As far as I could tell, that was the only Best Semester option for a theatre focus.
Thus, I approached Mark Matson in the caf with those words. "I want to go to Australia. Study abroad."
"Excellent. We'll make it happen. Do you want to do the CCCU program or do you just want to go to a university there and do your own thing? We can do either. Set up a meeting with me. We'll discuss."
And that was that. I set up my meeting, met with him, and the ball was rolling. As soon as the program was open for applications for the Spring 2011 semester, I applied. And the waiting game began.
I must admit that, at the time, I was not entirely sure what I was doing. It didn't seem like it was really going to happen. Despite Matson's certainty that it would happen, I was not so sure. But I was excited to apply.
You see, even then, I had a deep desire to get away. Milligan is about 10 minutes from the house I've grown up in. My church is on campus. Both of my sisters, my parents, and several extended family members are all alums of the school. I have known many of the professors for most of my life. I have grown weary of being in the same place for so long. I have traveled a fairly good amount throughout my life, but rarely for more than a week or two at a time. Twenty years in the same town has me aching to get out and do something different, at least for a little while. And I was feeling that desire a year ago--since then, it has only grown.
But, as I said, after I applied, there was a great waiting game. I was not to know if I'd been accepted into the program until the summer, which would not come for a few months. I still had a lot to do in the remainder of that semester--I worked on multiple shows, including directing my first one act, I dealt with my first romantic relationship, I found both old and new friendships changing drastically. And it was stressful. And it seemed to go on and on. And my desire to escape grew.
Summer came. I went to Europe with a tour group from Milligan. We were there for 3 weeks. It just so happened that Mark Matson was one of the faculty members on the tour. One day, on a train, he stopped by my car to speak to me. "You've been accepted," he said. "You're going to Australia. It's exciting!" His first assurance that it would happen was proven true. And once again, he spoke correctly. It certainly was exciting. And still is.
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