At first, I saw myself as possibly becoming a bruin. My older sister is my idol and she would show me how amazing her school was, but little did I know she had Bruined her life (I still love her though!) and fate would not allow me to make the same mistake.
It all started as a joke, posting USC stickers on my room door and telling her how her university was inferior to USC [actually true.] When the college application process began for me I had no idea where I wanted to go but I did know that USC had a great engineering program and I doubted whether or not I would be admitted. Sure enough, the stars aligned perfectly and I was admitted to what had become my dream school while waiting to hear back from universities. I chose USC over UCLA in a heartbeat.
I visited campus with my parents and, at my sister’s dismay, I became a Trojan. Just like that, our home was split in half. My sister and I insisted that our three other sisters, brother, and parents had to choose a side. I began bribing my siblings with Trojan apparel and got both of my parents USC MOM and USC DAD bumper stickers. They have yet to decide which school they will side with but I know they are all Trojans at heart.
However, the greatest thing that came of this divided home was the emphasis on how my immigrant parents’ two youngest children managed to learn from their other four siblings, who also attended college, and get admitted to top 25 schools in the nation. The rivalry is fun and strange but it only brought my sister and I closer together and we cannot have a conversation without bursting into laughter about poking fun at each other’s schools. Victory will be mine when she applies to the Keck School of Medicine and becomes a Trojan herself!
P.S. My girlfriend also ended up going to UCLA. Had I known this when we met in 10th grade, things would have probably worked out differently. I knew she was too good to be true .. but I guess it really is hard to find a ‘perfect’ partner. Why oh why must I have so many ties with this dreaded school?
