Stefany Feliciano

This is what I know. It doesn’t matter where I am, what I’m doing, or who I’m with, because beauty is everywhere. Now, I’m not going to say that this came to me as an epiphany while I was at Lafayette for the past four years. That would be lying. But there’s so much beauty here that I must give credit where credit is due.

After I graduated from Forest Hills High School in Queens, N.Y., I came to Lafayette thinking that I was going to study psychology, or anything related to the medical field. I wanted to be some type of doctor—a child psychologist or a pediatrician. I’ve always wanted to work with youth. I still do.

During my first two years, I spent most of my time attending classes in Oeschle Hall and participating in community service projects, which I loved. Meanwhile, I was continuing what I had started in high school. I was going to bed at three in the morning almost every day writing the cheesiest love poems and reading stories like the one about an Andalucian boy who wanted nothing but to follow his dreams. So I did the reasonable thing. I switched majors, and I was never more scared in my life. It was a huge change for me.

Then, during my junior year, I went to Greece and Spain and everything made sense. Traveling was like a voodoo doctor, full of enchanting black magic and powerful enough to help strengthen my curiosity towards the arts. So I lived every moment of my time traveling to the fullest; passionately, I can say, because a life without passion is a wasted life.

There’s beauty at Lafayette but Lafayette didn’t give it to me. It didn’t give me “an experience.” That, I gave to myself. Lafayette was here, with its wonderful resources and people, to be my home base. It provided me with the necessary canvas and brushes. But it was really up to me to find the colors; to paint the picture.

Like Paulo Coelho says in The Alchemist, “It’s up to you to follow your dreams.”