God had Another Plan by Lacy Ngo

The summer before my senior year my best friend and I visited Charleston, SC.  We had so much fun.  While we were there we went to a fancy hair place to get our hair done, ate wonderful seafood, and most importantly visited the College of Charleston. The college and the town were beautiful and exciting.  We both knew after that trip that we wanted to go to the College of Charleston for college, and we knew we wanted to be roommates.  We even got excited when we saw the grocery store and the Blockbuster movie store where we were going to do our shopping and renting together.   We bought College of Charleston t-shirts and bumper stickers for our cars.  I was so excited about going to College of Charleston with my best friend that I applied the first week of  high school my senior year.  After all, I wanted to be sure that I got in.  I hoped I would get in;  I made mostly straight A’s in school (I made a B in Freshman Focus, which was a class aimed at helping freshman adjust to school, discussed peer pressure, saying no to drugs, and gave a review of math and English.  I made another B in gym.  Ok I was what you would call a “girly” girl).  My friend  was just as excited so she applied the second week of school.  The forth week of school my friend got her acceptance letter.  I was excited for her, but I wondered why I hadn’t heard anything yet.  I waited…  A month passed, and I still hadn’t heard.  I hadn’t even gotten a letter saying that College of Charleston had received my application.  By then my parents and I were worried that my application had gotten lost in the mail so my Dad called to see if they had, in fact, received the package.  The admissions department said they had received my application and that I had been put on the waiting list for acceptance.  My friend had actually gotten what they called early acceptance.  This confused me because, although my friends grades were good, I was a school fanatic.  Grades were close to a top priority for me.  I later realized that College of Charleston was basing early acceptance on the SAT scores.  My friend had scored a few points higher than me.     I started to fear that I would not get into the school I wanted , and I also realized that I needed to have other options.  I decided to look around and apply to other schools as well .  I also applied to three other schools, one being Clemson.  They all accepted me soon after I applied.  Then I began to visit the other schools.  I had visited two out of three of the schools and still wanted to go to College of Charleston.     Clemson was the only school left to visit.  So January of that year, I headed off to Clemson with my parents.  As we were pulling up to the campus my heart began to beat faster, and I felt a feeling I had not felt for another school.  I had not even gotten out of the car yet, and I was telling my parents that this might be the school.  When I got out of the car and did the tour with the tour guide, I knew it!  It felt right; this was the place I wanted to go.  I was sure.  As we drove home, my Dad asked, “What if you got a letter of acceptance from College of Charleston tomorrow?”  I told my Dad, “Even if College of Charleston accepted me tomorrow,  I was going to Clemson.”   Strangely, the very next day I got a letter of acceptance from College of Charleston.    I  felt a chill when I realized that  I didn’t get accepted until the day after I had decided not to go there.  I felt sure that God knew what path he had wanted me to take.  He knew that if I had gotten into College of Charleston before that day that I would have gone there.  All I can say is God had other plans for me.  He knows what he was doing.  After all, I would not have married my husband, and I majored in something not offered at College of Charleston.  I now love my career.  The change of plans, changed my life drastically in more ways than I can even imagine.