Sochi or Bust!

I'm a pretty motivated person. Pretty average when it comes to the day-to-day, sure, but when there's something that I really want? Come hell or high water, I make it happen. Like Endurance; somehow this skinny, bespectacled, introverted kid with no prior TV experience beat out 10,000 other applicants to score a spot on her favorite show in the world. And working for the Olympics; this nutjob couldn't get a job with the US Olympic Committee, so she up and flew halfway across the world and spent four months volunteering with London 2012 Ceremonies.

Me and some fellow L2012C casting department vollies at the Dagenham rehearsal site. :)

Where did she go? She was cool. I miss her.

Basically, I found the perfect thing for me to do after graduation. It's a new school called the Russian International Olympic University. It's a one-year program for a master's degree in sport management, and your modules are Olympics-focused. As if that wasn't enough, it's in Sochi, from September 2013-June 2014. So, while the Olympics are in Sochi in February... follow the breadcrumbs. It makes me all goosebumpy and flaily just thinking about it.

Perfect, right? Absolutely flawless for everything I want to do in my life. Except it costs $30,000, none of which I have. So I haven't been thinking about it like it's a legitimate possibility. When I tell people about it, I say, "It's going to sound ridiculous, but..." and wave it off like it's not for real. A pipe dream, if you will.

But when I was home for Thanksgiving, my wonderful cousin Molly and I were talking about it, and I mentioned that I can't afford it. She waved me off like it was nothing. "You'll find a way," she said. "You always do."

(This is also why Molly doubles as my best friend.)

Hearing that was like a slap in the face in the best way possible. I do always find a way, don't I? So... why have I been so quick to write off RIOU because of $30,000? There are ways to pay for grad school; grants, loans, scholarships, whatever. I just have to find them. And hell, I would basically give a limb to be able to go to this school. It's like a higher power was like, "Hm, what would Darci's ideal life look like after she graduates from college? Let's do that!" Nothing should be stopping me from making this happen for myself. Nothing.

So I have decided to find the girl that made it onto a TV show with just a video camera and a dream, and the girl that found herself at Olympics opening ceremony rehearsals in London because she refused to take no for an answer.

She and I are going to Sochi.