Edit desk: It runs in the family

I had thought that being the fourth Greenberg in my family to attend Lehigh was unique enough, but spending my freshman year in the exact room my dad had lived in 32 years before was something special.

I had first made this discovery while looking through old photos of my father from his college years. In the background of those photos, I noticed a water pipe running down the wall exactly how the one in my current dorm room did. When my dad visited during Parents’ Weekend, we confirmed that it was his exact room, and went through all his old stories from freshman year in Dravo D306.

Lehigh had always run through my blood, from when I would wear my dad’s old Lehigh Alpha Chi Rho spring formal shirt to school as a kid all the way to when I finally stepped foot on campus as a student. As one may assume, there really hadn’t been much question to my college choice during my application process. I visited several schools, but always with the mindset that I would ultimately end up wearing the Lehigh brown and white as a student just like my parents and grandfather had when they were students.

From a young age, my parents had taken me to Lehigh football games, brought me to dinners with their old friends from college, and even formed friendships for me with their children around my age. As far as I was concerned, college was Lehigh, and Lehigh was college. My grandpa would always pull me aside during family outings and take me through endless scrapbooks of his college days, playing on the lacrosse team at what used to be Rauch Fieldhouse, trekking up the hundreds of stairs that I do every day, and spending what seems like an eternity studying in Linderman Library. While he didn’t want to necessarily sway me one way or another in terms of what school I would eventually attend, Lehigh was certainly ingrained in my mind as more than just 4 years at college.

Naturally, when it came time to actually apply, Lehigh was a clear-cut choice for the early decision plan of action. Although I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, I was fairly confident that it would be a smooth process, and I would have college plans in place by the middle of December.

Nonetheless, waiting for my decision was a tireless feat. Refreshing my email what seemed like 100 times a day, running out to the mailbox as soon as I would get back from school just to check, and even making frequent phone calls to Lehigh’s office of admissions to make sure they were on par with their decision notices this year. Seeing my friends and classmates get their decisions back only made me more apprehensive, especially when I saw the disappointment and anger from those who fell on the short end of the stick. Despite all the anxiousness involved, I  could really only picture myself going to school at Lehigh. In addition to all the hype and family legacy, I had genuinely fallen in love with the school itself and could not have been happier to follow in my family’s footsteps.

As expected, Dec. 15 came around, and my application was available through the Lehigh Portal. With a mix of excitement and nervousness, it took me a little while to even check my decision. It wasn’t until about 9 that night that I summoned the courage to log in and look. Finally, I clicked “enter” and opened my eyes to see my decision, which felt like it smacked me across the face: a lightly stated, briefly explained deferral until spring acceptances were announced. This felt like the end of the world for me, and I slammed my computer shut, dropped my phone, and sat in silence for hours. It wasn’t until my mom came into the room that anyone even knew about my deferral, and the beginning of the explanations had to begin.

As you can obviously tell, once spring decisions were released, I was officially admitted to Lehigh’s class of 2017. To this day, that was the happiest feeling I’ve ever had. As crazy as the family connection seemed when I was a kid, it’s even more profound now that I am actually at school here. Experiencing the same thing my family members did when they were my age, just many years later, is almost an indescribable feeling. From my parents and grandfather’s perspective, it is probably that much more amazing, and they could not be more proud to see me spend my four years at Lehigh University.