Getting schooled at school

Hard to believe that in a little more than 24 hours I will be back in Boston, for the first time since 2004. Something about my visit seems very full circle, perhaps because this year marks the 10th anniversary since I first moved up there to attend Emerson College.

Though I left Emerson as a junior to move to D.C. to attend the American University, that period in my life was incredibly formative and had a certain magic to it.

I lived in a sun-soaked dorm room overlooking the public gardens, ran every morning along the Charles River esplanade and worked in a small office in Beacon Hill with a killer statehouse view. During those few short years, I came to terms with my own sense of style; I prefer high heels and clean lines. I also established a work ethic by, at one point, holding down two jobs and an internship, pledging a sorority and founding the school's chapter of Amnesty International.

I also came to feel a sense that anything is possible and for that, I owe a debt of gratitude to Doc and Nancy.

Doc and Nancy lead the Freshman Academic Studies Program at Emerson, a program, I believe, for students the school thought twice about admitting. I will never forget a speech Doc gave during our freshman orientation, where he looked squarely at us, a gaggle of C students and misfits, even by Emerson standards, and said: "FASP students run this school, and I expect nothing less from any of you."

When I moved to Boston 10 years ago, I was an average student with average ambition. That was how I saw myself. When I left, I expected nothing short of a 4.0 GPA and in fact, was motivated to transfer because my ambitions, at that to establish a career in economics, exceeded what Emerson, a communications school, could offer.

I had come to fully embrace what Doc and Nancy had tried to teach us from the get-go: that success is a mindset. When the expectation was that I would be a major player at the school, I learned to see myself and my possibilities, in a different light.