Hall - Assignment 7

If I'm being honest, I haven't narrowed down my college list yet. I don't know whether it's because I don't have time, or if I'm purposely making sure I don't have time. I've thought about college in a vague sense, as an "I have to go, this is what I want out of it, and these are my requirements" sort of way. So I can't answer that part of the question, because I honestly don't have an answer myself. So I'm going to lighty adjust the question to talk about the things that I have thought about.

First off, I'm leaving Kentucky. There is no question, and no chance. If I see "Kentucky" in the name of a college or see that it is anywhere in the borders of this state, it's already crossed off the list. I want out. All the way out. I love being close to my family and my friends, and all of that, but I hate it here and the thought of staying here is laughable. There's nothing for me here and I am opting all the way out. In a college or university, I need a smaller campus in a busy place. I want to be able to make genuine relationships with my peers and my teachers, and I need to be able to go out and try new things around the city. I've been in a smaller, more intimate program all my life, and I need a smaller and more intimate environment to learn in. So that's a no to a big school, or a small town. Also it needs to be warm. I don't like cold, unless it's holiday season, and even then....eh. So most Ivy League schools, unless I get a good offer that I'm not willing to pass up, that's a no for me. An HBCU is likely for me, just because I feel like it's been a meaningful part of my upbringing and I enjoy the campus happenings. If not an HBCU, a campus with a legitimate black population. Being in a program with mostly white people and little to no black people and always feeling a tad self-conscious or hyper aware of being basically alone isn't something I want to always deal with. I'm not going to let myself be back in that situation if I can help it. Then it's also just got to have my major obviously, and be in a place near where I can do auditions and possibly work on a set without having to move too much. I mostly want to stay in the eastern half of America just because I can get back to family quicker, but if my acting career takes me elsewhere I suppose that's okay.

What I want out of my college experience? Well, I'm going to get a PhD. And I will have lengthened my acting resume and jumpstarted my career in acting and/or in the chosen career of my choice. From college/university I will go to grad school and get my PhD from there.

College for me is sort of a mixture of foreboding and exciting. Exciting because I'm out of the house, and can actually be myself and who I want to be, but foreboding in that it's sort of the end of my childhood and that I dream big and am hyper aware of the potential to crash and burn. My worst fear is making no impact, and dying in some grave with everyone else and no one ever really remembering me or caring that I'm gone. I want to make a legitimate difference and I won't stand for less, frankly, and if my college experience can't get me on my way to that then I don't want it.