On 10 June 2012, a year ago, I woke up at 11am in my best friends bedroom, my hair messy and smelling like perfume, my new black and gold dress in a crumpled state. We had just got back from our Vegas themed prom at the Allure nightclub in Yas Island only a few hours before. As I looked into the bathroom mirror and removed my now scary looking makeup and tried to imagine what I was going to experience in the next few months. High school was officially over and my ticket to Boston was booked for July 22. In a few months, I would be a Boston University freshman!
I admit that when I stood in front of the mirror that day, I felt like I didn’t deserve the opportunities that lay ahead of me. I had no idea what I was going to study and I wasn’t the hardest worker in school either. Someone was having a good day at BU a few months before and decided to send me an acceptance letter.
Once I got to Boston I soon got with the programme and as the months went by felt like I had been a student in Boston my whole life.
As the academic year was coming to an end and my last set of finals were ahead, I was at a low point. I wasn’t the most proactive freshman and I failed to make any good friends. I spent a lot of time indoors doing nothing thanks to the frigid New England weather and with no clear career goals ahead of me, I didn’t concentrate on my studies. I needed more than an alarm clock to wake me up in the mornings. I needed someone to shake my shoulders and tell me that I should stop ‘dreaming’ and start ‘doing’.
And then the bomb exploded!
No, really, two bombs exploded…right at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, not too far from our university. My mom texted an hour later, thankful that I wasn’t the type to run marathons and for once, everyone in my family was glad that I wasn’t that proactive girl who never missed a single event. And while they were relieved, I was enlightened by that event. I realised that I needed to do something with my life before it ended. It was morbid, but it was a wake up call.
While am condemning the bombers for what they did, I am trying to find the light this tragedy has brought on my life. And while I am still not sure about what I’ll be doing after three years, I am so ready for the first semester of sophomore year. Bring it on.
By Rhea Oommen
Rhea interned with Tempo this past summer. She is back at Boston University to continue her studies.
