I sat in my interview chair with my hands covering my mouth to withhold a scream.

The Angels Scholar interview board just gave me the news that would change the next four years of my life.

I was officially an Angels Scholar, a student whose college education would be paid for by the Angels Baseball foundation, with a full-ride scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley.

After I said thank you and shook the hands of the seven people who interviewed me, I let out a scream in my car before I started my drive home with a smile — one that would definitely result in wrinkles as I got older.

As I was driving, I reflected on how I ended up at this point in my life. I thought about my accomplishments and how those led me to this momentous day.

I was going to be an English major on the pre-law track at my dream school with almost all of my expenses paid for.

There are many people I have to thank, and The Accolade deserves some recognition as well.

The main reason I joined was because my freshman English Honors teacher Jennifer Kim informed me that journalism would be a great boost for my legal career aspirations. I listened to her, requested Journalism 1 as one of my sophomore year courses and started my Accolade journey.

I want to thank this program for giving me a chance to grow as a writer and pave the way for the rest of high school. Before journalism, I had zero passion for neither reading and writing nor did I ever think I would willingly apply to college as an English major.

Although many factors went into determining my acceptance into the Angels Scholar program, I know that my experience on staff and the different opportunities I was presented to compete in writing competitions helped boost my application.

The past four years felt like they would never end and now that my senior year is coming to a close, I cannot help but think of the ways my life turned out differently than my freshman self predicted.

I never thought I would be a student journalist or even get into the college of my dreams. I definitely did not anticipate such a huge honor from Angels Baseball. I predicted more failures than successes.

As I put my car in park after getting home from receiving the greatest news of my life, I realized that I can leave my high school years behind me without any regrets.