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When the final MSBA class of 2014 was announced and I realized that I would be learning alongside students from all over the world, I was beyond humbled and knew that I would be pushed to my full potential each and every day. As move-in day inched closer, I could barely sleep at night thinking about the relationships I was about to create and the opportunities I would be given in one of the most exciting cities in the world.
Finally, the day had come. Moving into the EHS student housing complex brought back memories of my freshman year of college. Though I had been anticipating this day for months, natural anxieties and homesickness began to set in as I realized I was about to begin a new chapter of my life in what some call, “the center of the universe,” leaving behind my friends and family for an entire summer. Since I was the first of my roommates to arrive and unpack, I decided to explore the area surrounding our dorm to do some grocery shopping and to locate the nearest subway stop (which turned out to be conveniently located about a block away). Walking through the Upper East Side and passing by all of the delicious looking restaurants and bakeries eased a lot of the anxieties I was feeling. I began to feel like this was a place I could easily call home.
My roommates finally arrived at about 3:00 p.m. and we immediately hit it off. In fact, our conversations were so fluent that we lost track of time and accidentally showed up a few minutes late to the first official MSBA meeting – oops! Walking into the first floor study room and seeing the staff and all of the faces that made up the MSBA class of 2014 was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Since I had received my invitation to join MSBA, the thought of moving in and meeting my classmates rarely left my mind. After the program founder, Ben Sturner, introduced himself and welcomed us to NYC, everyone finally got a chance to meet one another before heading out to our first official event – dinner at the Leverage Agency office where MSBA is headquartered. Everyone was blown away by the setup at Leverage, which included a buffet of spaghetti and pizza from Brooklyn (hands down the best “pie” I’ve ever had) on an amazing balcony overlooking Midtown Manhattan. It was a beautiful night as the sunset in between the NYC skyscrapers and we finally got a chance to relax and socialize with our new classmates and sure-to-be lifetime friends.