April 13, 2023: I stare out the window of my flight as we descend towards JFK airport in New York. Sharing an AirPod with my friend to listen to Welcome to New York, I took in what I believed would be my new home for the next four years. I was set on committing to New York University’s Stern School of Business.
After all, why wouldn’t I be? My best friend of 13 years and I both made it in, there was the prestige of heading to America to be educated, we went through the same grueling standardized testing procedures, we poured hours upon hours into the perfect essays—this was the end. We had both even updated our Instagram biographies to purple hearts in our fervent anticipation.
Since visiting for the first time in 2017, I had promised myself I would return to New York—now, I finally did.
April 17, 2023: Just 12 hours after flying back from New York, I’m sitting in a small room in downtown Vancouver attending an Ivey information session. After three days of student events in Washington Square Park, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to yet another presentation, but I’d promised my parents I would go.
I’m still not sure what magic went on inside that room, but I left it feeling strangely divided over Western or Stern. Sure, it was quite the informational talk, but something about the feelings that Western gave off just seemed more fitting. I’d never even visited the campus before—heck, I’ve never even been to Ontario—but I just knew that I would have to reconsider my options. Sitting in a ramen restaurant with potential Western friends after the info session, my mind raced to find an answer.
And so, it began: two weeks of making what felt like the hardest decision of my life. I researched each school day and night, considering what my ultimate career goals were (I had no idea at that time). I chatted with numerous students from both NYU and Western, even meeting someone who was in the exact same dilemma as me just one year prior. I would take long walks at night, pondering whether I wanted to spend my time in New York or London, where the culture was more fitting, where I thought I would be happier.
Days passed and I remained equally split with no progress towards a decision.
April 27, 2023: My 50/50 leaning on either school shifts 51/49 in favour of Western. To this day, I honestly don’t know why: there was no singular reason that made me lean this way. Maybe it was the mentors I knew at Western who supported me; maybe it was the more tight-knit campus community; maybe it was how Western would have allowed me to explore my interests first before fully committing to business, something I desperately valued; or maybe it was the fact that my friend also decided against New York, instead also opting for London (albeit the British one). Whatever it was, my gut was sending a stronger and stronger message the more I thought about my decision.
April 28, 2023: I listened to my heart. After too many intense deliberations and conversations, I login to my portal and accept my Western offer just three days before the deadline. A part of me felt relieved, while another anguished at having given up the New York dream for a small-town in Ontario. I pushed the thoughts away, looking only ahead.
April 29, 2023: I messaged one of my upper-year mentors at Western to let him know of my decision and received a warm welcome. “No regrets,” he said. “Don’t look back.”
Present Day: I have embodied his words since then: I haven’t looked back, and certainly feel no regrets.
Reflecting now, the whole process seemed unnecessarily complicated—I’m confident I would have thrived no matter where I decided to end up. But the biggest lesson I learned, and the biggest piece of advice I can give when deciding where to write the next chapter of your life, is to just listen to your gut.
Listen to your heart.
Listen to yourself.
It’s all too easy to let superficial factors like rankings, prestige, or glamorous perceptions influence you, but, at the end of the day, choose what is best for you. My journey here may have involved choosing between two excellent options while having no clue what I wanted to do with my life after, but I could not be happier with my final decision because it was what my heart led me to.
And hey—at least with Western, there was no need to change the purple hearts in my Instagram bio.