I still vividly remember driving past Kulp Hall when I first moved to the Elkhart area. I was 14, melodramatic, and obsessed with everything vintage. Upon seeing Kulp, I can recall thinking: “Wow, anyone who gets to live there is lucky. It must be like living at Hogwarts or in an episode of Gilmore Girls.”

Fast forward roughly five years and I am living in Kulp Hall. Or, as I have come to think of it, a live episode of Gilmore Girls with no air conditioning. 

A lot has changed over the experience of my education, but my educational goals have always remained the same. I love to learn, I want to learn, and I aspire to be some form of writer. 

Thankfully, it is becoming more and more clear that GC is the place for me to accomplish those goals.

It was a long series of events for me to realize that, though. From being freshly 17 and living five hours from home at the peak of COVID-19, living two hours from home and having roommate horror stories that are undoubtedly not suitable for print, to commuting to Indiana University South Bend from home last year, I wasn’t finding the satisfying college experience that I had imagined all my life.

But then I remembered that drive past Kulp Hall I had a few years earlier. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful place to learn more about writing, to connect with people who actually love to learn and not just pass their classes, and to learn more about spirituality?

So, on a whim at 3 a.m., I applied to Goshen and got accepted.

It took my parents a bit of convincing. What did Goshen have that I couldn’t get at IUSB? 

But they had everything I wanted in a school. A small private campus, lots of writing classes and ways to write outside of class, a progressive atmosphere, an environment to consider all kinds of spirituality, and lots of unique study abroad programs. I was pumped and rightfully so. After explaining all of this to my parents, they were too. 

And, truthfully, I think they wanted me out of the house.

When making the transfer, my excitement and confidence in coming to GC was continuously confirmed. I have met the most intelligent and caring professors, who want to see me succeed and are genuinely excited when I do. I’ve joined programs on campus like The Record, Broadside Publishing Board, and the Creative Writing Club and met peers who want their peers to succeed, who enjoy what they’re learning about, and who work incredibly hard. I’ve started the process for a once-in-a-lifetime SST trip to Israel/Palestine to learn about interreligious peace and communication.

I was and still am confident in my decision to transfer. I feel it especially when I see my dorm building and remember that younger version of me, who longed for a great group of friends to be around – and an aesthetically pleasing building to do that in.

So, for anyone who feels a little bit like an outlandish outcast, who wears stained sandals and lugs around a huge water bottle, and cares about kindness and the environment, Goshen is the place to be. Trust me.