“It started in October when I went to the college center. I asked if I could apply to college [early].The plan was just to get feedback from the colleges. I ended up getting into a school that I really want to go to [and] after a month I finally made the hard decision that I’m going to go.

I don’t know if I regret doing it or not. But I’m glad I got into UCSD.

I found out that I got into USC as well [after getting into UCSD]. So now I have to choose between [them]. It’s a really tough decision. I’m hoping that the trip [to visit the USC campus will] help me out.

I had mixed feelings about [going to college early]. I’m gonna miss all my friends next year but I can always keep in touch with them. If I didn’t take this opportunity, then I might not get it next year [and] I would have felt a lot of regret. [There’s still] a lot of regret because I won’t be here for senior year, but I can still go to prom and gain a lot of senior experiences.

[There will be] more freedom, but that’s also scary as well. Am I going to survive in college? Because I don’t know how to cook. I can barely wake myself up in time. I’m not gonna have any family [in the area]. It’s really scary, especially because I’ve had this layer of security [with] one more year left of high school. But now I don’t [have that].

[When I told people], a lot of them just didn’t believe me because that’s something unheard of. And for [some time], I didn’t really believe myself. When I applied I didn’t really know anything. I got really lucky to get into those schools.

I feel like it’s the start of something new.”