Choices. I think a lot about choices. For many years in my life, I’ve thought that I was without choices, or had very limited ones. It wasn’t true, but my early life trained me in those thoughts. My family didn’t have a lot of money, I though my choices were limited. It was true in some sense - expensive things were out of reach – but I exercised choice in come very real ways, that I didn’t recognize at the time.
A very significant example of this was my choice (determination, really) to go to college. This decision was made early on in my life – elementary school, think – and I gave myself no exit from the path. I was going to go to college and this was a reality for me.
What I didn’t realize (and thankfully didn’t find out until I grauduated from Ball State):
· It takes a lot of money to go to college.
· Traditionally, you have parental help for some things
· You weren’t supposed to have to go it alone.
I didn’t have the money or the parental support, either monetarily or figuratively. I was on my own.
What I did have was the vision of going to college, a decision that was cast in stone in my mind. I met with my guidance counselor, put together a financial aid application, which included my parents’ financial information, applied for different schools, and chose Ball State University for its journalism school.
When it came time for Freshman year orientation, I took a Greyhound bus to Muncie, Indiana for the 3 day orientation.
My parents did get me a ride to school with all my stuff for the first of the year, but mostly I found my own way, finally taking over an ancient Toyota Celica my sophomore year.
I look back now and find it rather extraordinary, and marvel at the determination an 18 year-old had to make the dream of years come true. The emotional heavy lifting you might envision just wasn’t there at the time. I had made a decision and every action, every circumstance was simply a task to be completed to follow through on that decision, on that choice.
The key pieces I learned from that are still with me, the power of intentionally making a decision, and then never wavering. I don’t believe I had any naysayers in my life around this decision, and if I did I filtered them out, because I certainly don’t remember them now.
I was scared and uncertain sometimes, but the power of the choice I made was stronger than the fear.
A very significant example of this was my choice (determination, really) to go to college. This decision was made early on in my life – elementary school, think – and I gave myself no exit from the path. I was going to go to college and this was a reality for me.
What I didn’t realize (and thankfully didn’t find out until I grauduated from Ball State):
· It takes a lot of money to go to college.
· Traditionally, you have parental help for some things
· You weren’t supposed to have to go it alone.
I didn’t have the money or the parental support, either monetarily or figuratively. I was on my own.
What I did have was the vision of going to college, a decision that was cast in stone in my mind. I met with my guidance counselor, put together a financial aid application, which included my parents’ financial information, applied for different schools, and chose Ball State University for its journalism school.
When it came time for Freshman year orientation, I took a Greyhound bus to Muncie, Indiana for the 3 day orientation.
My parents did get me a ride to school with all my stuff for the first of the year, but mostly I found my own way, finally taking over an ancient Toyota Celica my sophomore year.
I look back now and find it rather extraordinary, and marvel at the determination an 18 year-old had to make the dream of years come true. The emotional heavy lifting you might envision just wasn’t there at the time. I had made a decision and every action, every circumstance was simply a task to be completed to follow through on that decision, on that choice.
The key pieces I learned from that are still with me, the power of intentionally making a decision, and then never wavering. I don’t believe I had any naysayers in my life around this decision, and if I did I filtered them out, because I certainly don’t remember them now.
I was scared and uncertain sometimes, but the power of the choice I made was stronger than the fear.
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