Art School

When I was in high school, my dream was to become a comic book artist and draw funny comics for people to enjoy. I seriously considered applying for art school. A few of my good friends applied and got into art school.

For some reason, I never applied to an art school. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at you, which dramatically changes the direction of our lives.

When I was applying for colleges, I focused on places I was comfortable going to and where most of my high school friends were applying to as well. In one alternate universe, I would be following the footsteps of both my brother and my father who both studied at Case Western Reserve University. In a completely "what the fuck why the hell not" decision, I applied to Washington University in St Louis, which would've been my last option.

My first two options ideally would have been Cornell University and University of Pennsylvania, 2 great Ivy league schools. I got rejected from both.

Wash U accepted me though, and in a bold and completely "what the fuck why the hell not" decision, I moved down to St Louis. St. Louis, a city I really didn't know anything about other than the Gateway Arch.

I actually got accepted into their BFA program, so maybe I was going to be an artist after all! But in another "what the fuck why the hell not" decision, I transferred to the architecture program at the last minute.

Well 4 years later and I do not regret these decisions. At some point in that period I decided to apply for graduate school and looked primarily at architecture programs. This made logical sense to me, and yet my heart told me I wanted something different. There was something about site, and landscape that I gravitated towards and in another "what the fuck why the hell not" decision I decided to apply for a Masters of Landscape Architecture Program.

At first I looked at local programs such as Wash U's new landscape program, or OSU's program back in my home state. I knew I would never get into Harvard, so I said "what the fuck why the hell not" and sent the Harvard GSD my application materials. It only took a few edits of the statement of intent anyway.

Well one day I wake up, check my email, and Harvard GSD just sent me an acceptance notification email. Great, another unexpected twist. OK, I'll visit the school during Open House weekend and see what it's like. I was impressed by what I saw, and little did I know I was walking past a lot of the friends I would eventually make here, unbeknownst of our eventual intersecting destinies.

Here I am now studying landscape architecture at the GSD, and I think back to how lucky and how weird my life has been. Nothing has been happening according to plan. This summer, I will be interning at the firm I was sure would least likely accept me, and yet I will be moving to San Francisco for the first time in my life.

I still think about going to art school. Its never too late to continue your dream. I'm still young, maybe in a few years I'll return to school and pursue what I've always loved doing: Drawing cartoons.