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Photo Courtesy Jaclyn Cerbone

During a summer internship interview season that was as agonizing as a semester of business statistics, I found myself struggling to get any offers in March of my junior year.

Having returned from a semester abroad, I was also jumping back into the work study scene after applying too late to rejoin DC Reads. I applied to the Corp, and after receiving a first-round interview, I was rejected. I applied to be a captain for New Student Orientation, having been an OA for two years, and I was rejected. After studying abroad for one semester, I felt like my Georgetown bubble had burst and the party was over. The Hilltop was suddenly no longer home. What had happened in my three months abroad? A majority of faces at Leo’s were new to me, and the blanket of comfort I had known on campus had lifted.

Alfred asks Batman, “Why do we fall?” So we can learn to pick ourselves up again. I decided to keep going with NSO as an OA because my NSO memories make up some of the best times I’ve had at college. As it turns out, my Captain/OA group this time around was exceptional and the freshmen in my OA group were fantastic. They made the no-sleep regimen of NSO completely worthwhile, and I am so thankful I was not a captain because I would have missed out on them. And by not getting the job at the Corp, I was able to get involved with DC Reads again in the fall, and became a coordinator at one of the schools. My co-coordinator Cara and our tutors were an outstanding group to work with, and the kids warmed my heart. We had our end-of-the-year luau on the front lawn in April, and one of the kids told a volunteer it was the best day of his life. For me, it doesn’t get much better than that.

And where did I study abroad? Villa le Balze in Florence, Italy. Yup, the same person who withdrew from Advanced Italian during the fall semester of my sophomore year because I was failing. No exaggeration. I withdrew on the second-to-last day it was allowed. I still applied to the Villa and was accepted, and it was a really beautiful time in my life.

Had the Georgetown experience worked out for me the way I thought it would, I would have missed out on things I was meant to do here on the Hilltop. Although I have no idea what is going to happen over the next few months and I am scared out of my mind about becoming a “real” person, I have faith that God will put me where I need to be, even (and sometimes especially) when I don’t plan to be there.

At my job last summer, I met a Georgetown graduate from the 1980s. I spoke with him about his division and expressed how badly I wanted to work in his group full-time. We had only met a few times before, but he could see I meant business. One morning, he looked at me and asked, “Is this really what you want to do?” I fervently confirmed. He said, “OK, I’m going to do the best I can for you, and in return, I want you to do this for another Georgetown kid who comes to you one day and asks for help.”

That was all I had to do? Really? He wasn’t joking around either. He did everything he could to put me in front of his bosses, introduce me to other Georgetown alumni in the division, and set up interviews. And why? Because I go to Georgetown. Because he saw that I am a young person trying to figure things out for myself, and he remembered what that was like. It was the first time I truly thought, “Wow, welcome to the Hoya Family.”

With each passing day, I pray for peace. I want to accept that I am graduating and be OK with it. There are so many things I had hoped to do in my time here, some that I did and a lot that I didn’t do, and I want to be OK with that. It’s never going to tie up nicely into a bow — I’m not saying I did everything I wanted to do or met everyone I wanted to meet — but I am thankful for what I accomplished and the wonderful friends I made. When you look back on your time on the Hilltop, I hope that you too have peace about everything and everyone. We can never do it all, and it helps to have faith that you are where you are meant to be.

Jaclyn Cerbone is a senior in the McDonough School of Business.