Drama drama

Well after getting past the terror of the possibility that my arm problems might end my ABA career before it started and that it might require surgery or an early return trip home things seemed to be looking up. That lasted at most...3 days. On the Friday night of Thanksgiving weekend  I opened up my Caldwell email account and found it inundated with emails about a letter (that I hadn't yet received) from the US government to the international students of Caldwell College stating that the college had lost its SEVIS status (meaning they were no longer certified to have international students) and that we had until January 30th to either transfer to a new college or leave the country. To be honest it seemed like a bit of a joke and we were being told not to worry because 'it doesnt affect our status'. By Monday it was all too real. My letter arrived, more emails had gone round that outlined the seriousness of the situation and we had a meeting with the President (Nancy) and some of the administration. You could here the emotion in their voices as they told us that they were doing everything in their power to fix the problem even having the New Jersey senator petition on the college's behalf. Basically what had happened was that the woman in charge of the international students' affairs didnt complete and file a report to the government that she had had 6 months (and two windows of opportunity to appeal) to complete (and didnt tell anyone at the college about it - so no one even knew there was a report until we (the students) started getting letters). We were told that if by some chance we couldnt stay at Caldwell (ie the government refused to recertify the college) then they would do everything in their power to get us transferred to a new college and that anyone with 9 or fewer credits left before they can graduate should arrange to do them over the winter break. Apparently my story was used as one of the case studies the college presented to the government. It was a very intense few days with the international students getting very worried, the administration working very long hours and the student body asking for international students' stories and organising prayer groups and meeting to express how much they loved the international students. After a bit of a freak out on Monday I decided that seen as there was nothing I could do but wait and trust that whatever the outcome the college would take care of us so there was really no point in stressing out at least for the first week anyway. In fact I spent most of the week making jokes about it because it was just easier to deal with it that way than to dwell on it and act like its the end of the world. On Thursday the dam broke and good news came flooding in. We had our certification back (though theres still a semesters worth of hoops for the college to jump through) and we can all stay but no new international students can come into the college until at least next fall. Talk about a cloud lifted off the college...and me.