It has been said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I guess that proverb rings as true now as it did when it was created. I stand before a long and fairly uncertain road, a somewhat rocky and fairly tumultuous path seems to loom before me, full of dark areas that I, despite my best efforts, cannot discern from this great distance. Despite the uncertainty that lies before me, I feel like I must launch myself into the abyss, that abyss is the Appalachian town of Morgantown. To many Morgantown is hardly an abyss, it is a relatively cosmopolitan college town that serves as the location for the university of West Virginia.
I may not share that particular viewpoint as I am a native of Peru, Lima to be precise and have lived in FL long enough to be considered a native Floridian. Beside the usual big (or in this case medium) city to country transition, I have other concerns. Everyone I know is in Florida, most of my friends live within 20 or so miles from Tampa. Leaving here will mean leaving my friends, family, and most difficult my son. He is almost 3 and I fear that leaving for what in effect will be half his life will cause me to miss those moments that are usually accompanied by a song that makes movie audiences reminisce about their childhood. His first day of school, completing his first thoughtful and coherent sentence, the why era and countless phases and experiences, things that shape a person between the ages of 3 and 6. So why leave and why West Virginia? For starters its not a bad school, they are comparatively inexpensive, it has a strong legal tradition and most importantly they offered me a decent scholarship. I could have attended Stetson law, which is a few miles out of the way for me, in Gulfport, FL unfortunately going there part time would cost more than going to WVU full time, and they offered me no scholarship, or similar aid. Thus I felt that despite the obvious emotional toll, WVU was the wiser choice.
As of today, I haven't made much progress in finding a place, hell I haven't even gone to visit the University. I look forward to discovering Morgantown, and the College of law. Being one of four Hispanic students at the College, I think my experience will be different than most. I wonder what impact being a racial super minority is going to have on me. I fear what people may assume of me, I am also going into uncharted waters of sorts. West Virginia has a Hispanic population of near 1.3%, there are 11,000 eligible Hispanic voters in the state, a far cry from Florida where 22.9% of the population are Hispanic, 2.1 Million of which are eligible voters. Attending law school, I will most likely be in the upper academic echelon with very few colleges of the same background. What this will mean for my future and how this will shape me as an attorney is to be determined. One thing this journey will not be is dull, alas all that's left to do is to take that first step.
