When I tell people where I\u2019m from, the reaction is always pretty similar. In fact, ask any student that is from a state not in the Midwest which question they dread most and it is \u201cwhy did you come to Iowa\u201d. (I promise it\u2019s even better when you and your roommate are both from a coast so you both have to listen to each other\u2019s explanation about 100 times a day.) To be honest I\u2019ve gotten used to the question and have a pretty good scripted answer or two, but a few weeks ago I got asked a question that really stumped me. While in an interview for a job here on campus I got asked \u201cwhy stay?\u201d. In my head it seems pretty self-explanatory why I stayed, but then I realized that they couldn\u2019t see in my head, nor could they see the crazy jumps I make from one thought to another so somehow I was going to have to put my shambles into words. Honestly my answer in the interview was a complete mess I think I said something about the people I\u2019ve met, and sure that\u2019s true but now that I am spending more time thinking about it, I realize I have even better reasons for why I stayed. I stayed here because it never crossed my mind that I belonged anywhere else, because I know I didn\u2019t. I stayed because I didn\u2019t want to be anywhere else. I just wanted to be here\u2026 like all the time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny, when I decided to switch my major, my parents wanted me to make sure that I was making the right decision. And again in my head it made complete sense, but for some reason I couldn\u2019t quite explain it to them and then one day I realized something. Before ever coming to college I had originally gotten admitted to another nursing program before I got admitted to Iowa\u2019s and yet I still committed to Iowa without hesitation. I committed on the off-chance I was never going to be able to graduate with a nursing degree, because I wanted Iowa that bad. Looking back I didn\u2019t pick Iowa for nursing, I picked Iowa because I didn\u2019t want to go to any other school, and well I stayed because I still don\u2019t want to be at any other school. I wake up every morning beyond happy with the decision I made for school. I come to school knowing that I\u2019ve made a home and a family here. I stay here because I have met people I wouldn’t have met anywhere else, I have found a version of myself I never would’ve found anywhere else, I have found a happiness I never would’ve found anywhere else.<\/p>\n
So why stay? I stay because not once, not even when I am at home with strep throat just wanting my parents and my dog, have I ever considered not being here.<\/p>\n
Until Next Time<\/p>\n
Go Hawks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I tell people where I\u2019m from, the reaction is always pretty similar. In fact, ask any student that is from a state not in the Midwest which question they dread most and it is \u201cwhy did you come to Iowa\u201d. (I promise it\u2019s even better when you and your roommate are both from a … Continue reading Why Stay?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campuslife","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/caitlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}