I wasn’t the first in my family to go to Harvard, but I also wasn’t the last. 

In December of 2022, I received news that I was never expecting: I got into Harvard. I remember the day vividly; I was lying on the couch downstairs, working on a Spanish project, while my little sisters were working on their homework. I had been out of school for a few days beforehand because I had gotten really sick after my school’s Winter Formal that year. I honestly had no clue that it was even Decision Day for Restrictive Early Action until one of my friends from church texted me, “Faith, decisions are out.” I immediately replied “Oh no,” set down my phone, signed onto the admissions portal and brought my laptop to my dad. When I opened my decision, saw ‘congratulations’ in bold, and the video started playing, I just started screaming. I couldn’t believe it. I ran upstairs to tell my mom first, then started texting my closest friends about the news. This wasn’t the first time my family had received news like this, though. 

In March of 2021, in that very same room, I was sitting on the couch, working on some of my COVID-era assignments while my older sister was doing work at the computer. At least, that’s what I thought she was doing. All of a sudden, she got really quiet. I went over to peek behind her shoulder, and I saw a letter from Harvard filled with confetti. My older sister, the same girl who I shared a room with my entire childhood, who volunteered with me at church, who introduced me to Broadway musicals, was going to attend so many people’s dream school. I always knew she was special, but now she was getting recognised by one of the most famous colleges in the world. 

Fast forward to one year after my acceptance, and two years after my sister’s, I got a call from my brother in December of 2023. He, too, would be attending Harvard that upcoming fall. Even before his acceptance, I always believed he would get in. Whenever people would ask me about my siblings, I would always tell them that, if Harvard took me, they had to take him too. He’s always been so dedicated, so hardworking, and so freakishly smart about things that, to this day, still confuse me. I couldn’t think of a more worthy candidate. 

Going back to my first year though, when it was just my sister and I, it was honestly a bit of a difficult experience for me to navigate. My whole life, we were held in such close proximity. We were less than two years apart, often going through the same experiences just after each other. Coming into college, I, admittedly, found myself falling into the same patterns of comfort. While, academically, we had completely different paths, with her being Pre-Med and my Pre-Law path, I found myself in a lot of her social circles. The extracurriculars I first got involved in were all ones that she was in as well. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved everything that I involved myself in during my first year. However, at some points, it felt like I was editing the path that she had already taken instead of charting my own. 

In all honesty, my younger brother was one of my inspirations when it came to doing something completely different. Even before he arrived on campus, he was pursuing paths unlike anything we had done before. If he could do it, why couldn’t I? Over the course of the next year, I began branching out, both into different extracurriculars and diving deeper into the ones I had committed myself to. 

I think that embracing our differences helped to bring us closer together. While I can’t speak for my siblings, I can speak for myself in the fact that honouring what made me different made me look more favourably upon what made us similar. I stopped questioning whether or not I was as good at something as my older sister, or if I was laying a good foundation for my brother to follow. I became even more content with just being me, pursuing what I wanted to for the sake of my own satisfaction and my personal goals. I loved it. 

Being able to go to college with my siblings is not something that I ever would have imagined, but it is one of the experiences that I am the most grateful for. I’ve served alongside my siblings on Executive Boards, made connections with some of my closest friends through them, and grown closer than we were. On my own, I’ve thought about how lucky we are to be here at the same time, how my parents, in their journey to the United States all those years ago, had no clue that the fruits of their labour would be their children attending an Ivy-League. Together, we have had so many laughs and told each other so many stories about the cast of characters we all get to see on campus. 

I am eternally grateful for this life-changing experience, and I wouldn’t have chosen anyone else to have by my side throughout it all.