Back to Square One
Kethan Babu
Hannah Potts
I missed the University of Michigan transfer application by one week.
I committed to Miami University on a whim and made my decision one day before the deadline. I knew going into my first year that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and out of my shell. Looking back, this was easier said than done.
When I looked around campus, it was clear there wasn’t a huge Indian population in Oxford. This wasn’t a huge problem, since my high school was also predominantly white. But when I walked to classes or sat in Armstrong Student Center, I’d be lying if I said I liked being the only Indian guy around.
I searched for excuses to leave my dorm room, and the First-Year Integrated Core at the Farmer School of Business certainly kept me busy, but I found myself with a lot of alone time during my fall and especially spring semesters. I wrote a little for The Miami Student (TMS), but there were still several nights that I sat on my bed with nothing to do but ask myself if I'd made a mistake.
By March, I was done with Miami. I didn’t love my classes and hadn’t made many friends. I started looking into the transfer application for the Michigan School of Business and began preparing my transcript and the documents I needed to send.
Little did I know, I had confused the transfer deadlines for Michigan’s School of Business with its Literature, Arts and Science school. I missed the deadline by one week and was back to square one.
Without much choice, I gave Miami one more year. I was tired of pretending that I liked Miami, so I made it my mission to get it together for my sophomore year.
My main goal for the year was to stay as busy as possible. I signed up for 18 credit hours, added journalism as my second major and began writing for TMS even more. I joined several new clubs, including the debate club, Miami Television News and I interned with the athletic department.
Finding any reason to not be in my dorm helped, but I also wanted to work on speaking up.
I used to hate talking. To strangers, classmates, professors and even people I knew somewhat well, I would get uncomfortable having a conversation. When people mispronounced my name (which happens almost daily), I’d let it slide without saying anything.
But throughout my second year at Miami, I made an effort to change that. In class, I went out of my way to talk to those around me. In the newsroom, I would try to talk with anyone at the same table. A lot of times, it was about working through that anxiety and telling myself it’s better for me as a person.
I started applying that ideology to activities like going to social events or attending things I usually wouldn’t. I must’ve done something right, because the difference between who I am now and my first-year self is like night and day.
I doubt I’m the only person who has or will go through similar moments of isolation or fear. I’m not in a position to give advice to anyone, but if I could go back in time and help 18-year-old Kethan, I’d tell him to find an organization and commit to it 100%.
Looking back now, my time at Miami has been incredible, and sometimes I find it weird I wanted to leave so badly. I’m not superstitious or religious, but I like to think there was a reason I missed the Michigan transfer application.
