Escapism November 15, 2007
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , trackback
i had to open with a lolcat. i know my family is probably going “wtf?” at it, but i just thought it was so, so appropriate.
i had an interesting conversation with adrian and gillian today about pratt and schools in general. so many kids from our program are transferring or dropping out. out of a program of forty-ish freshmen, two have already filled out the paperwork to drop. it’s interesting to me. i didn’t really research writing programs, or even good ones — rather, i applied to two schools in nyc with writing programs and pretty websites, and a too-big state school that wouldn’t offer me half the opportunities. it’s weird to me that people are not satisfied with this program (which, despite some lackluster faculty, is pretty fantastic, i think) and that people had a greater expectation for their money. personally, i’d rather spend the $40,000 a year for professors who knew my name in two weeks and offer individual help than $20,000 a year on a state school where i would be an ID number and a face in a lecture of 200 students.
all of this, of course, is generally irrelevant. what i did realize, after a waltz in the rain back to pantas, is that i am paying part of that $40,000 to escape. escape the state of michigan, escape the small-town state of mind, escape the people i’d come to know. and, really, if my education is worth the same after graduating from pratt as it would be after graduation from a state school, then, fine. so be it. really, i have no qualms emptying my bank account if it means that i am somewhere where i am happy.
i think that is where so many people get caught up and turned against going out of state for school. it’s so much more money, it’s so far away — but what you’re paying for is the escape and the chance to make something of yourself. it sounds petty, and it’s certainly a generalization that i have many, many exceptions to, but i’ve come to respect the people who go out-of-state a touch more than the people who stay in. there’s something about leaving your comfort zone that shows a strength that you can’t find in someone who only went to ann arbor.
i am so, so happy here.
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