For the past two years, I knew that there would come a time when I had to figure out what my next steps were going to be. I just didn’t know that the world would be in the middle of a pandemic when that time came. 

Two years ago I made the decision to come to Santa Barbara City College. It was the best thing for me then because I was anxious and I didn’t feel ready to move across the country and go to some big university.

But now, I’ve done everything I wanted to accomplish when I moved here. I’ve been in Santa Barbara for two years, and made friends I love and spent time saving money at a job I enjoy. 

I’m ready now.

For the past month, I have been figuring out my next steps.

I applied to colleges in January, and two weeks ago I committed to a college that is over 1,000 miles away in Tennessee. 

While in quarantine, all I did was research these schools. I looked at photos, read about their programs and went on virtual tours of their campuses. 

I decided my future based on a few hours of internet research because that is the world we are living in right now. 

We are all stuck in quarantine, but that doesn’t mean that the world stops turning. We still have to move forward, slowly but surely.

In August, I am moving to a city I have never been to, in a state I know very little about. I’m moving into a house that I know only from photos and general descriptions. 

Figuring out what my next steps are going to be has not been easy but if this pandemic has given me anything, it has given me the time to think. It has given me the time to weigh the benefits of each college and come to a realistic, logical decision. 

About 48 hours before I chose my school, I was reading a book by one of my favorite sports journalists. The preface opened with the writer going to baseball player Clayton Kershaw’s Dallas home to talk to him about the previous season.

The way she wrote about the meeting, the way she talked with Kershaw, it was all I needed to make my decision. I knew in that moment that writing about sports is all I ever wanted to do, and only one college gave me my best shot at getting where I wanted to go. 

I don’t know what this August is going to look like. 

I don’t know what my first days or weeks in Tennessee will be like but I do know that three years ago, I had all the information I needed to make a college decision and I still couldn’t do it. 

This pandemic has given me time to think about what really matters to me and after everything, I think I’ve finally figured it out.