Commentary
Part I
In less than 3 months I will be turning the ripe old age of 20, and in less than 5 months I will be sending out applications to prospective universities I plan to transfer to after my last quarter at Sinclair Community College. To many, this may not seem like a big deal, but to me it’s going to be the most difficult choice in my young life. My journey to Sinclair will make it more understandable.
My senior year of high school was the best time of my life and I had no worries but when it came time to send out applications for college I behind the curve. I had neglected filling out applications mainly because of my fear of growing up – I had personally diagnosed myself with Peter Pan syndrome. Most of the schools I had considered attending application deadlines were Feb. 4, 2007 and I had planned on filling them out during my winter break.
By Feb. 4, I hadn’t filled out a single application. This left me with very few options and they were the University of Toledo (UT) and Otterbein College. UT was convenient because they sent representatives to my high school and I was able to fill out a simple application to be able to get accepted to UT that day. Otterbein was convenient because I wasn’t required to write an essay and my favorite teacher, Mr. Burke, graduated from there, so I thought “It has to be alright if Mr. Burke went there.” I got accepted to both schools and eventually visited each one. They both had their pluses and minuses but I decided that I wanted to attend Otterbein.
Otterbein was a small college near Columbus and I liked the atmosphere. The only problem was that since it was a private college the tuition was very expensive and even with the amount financial aid and scholarship money I received, I would still would have to take out a substantial loan to attend. With all of these factors I was still prepared to go to Otterbein, even if I had to take out a huge loan, but I wasn’t as sure with my decision because of the lack of support I was receiving from my mother. She knew I hadn’t taken the college process, as seriously as I should have and thought I wasn’t making the right choice.
After mulling over the decision and taking the consideration of my mother’s advice I decided that Otterbein wasn’t in my future. I had put all my eggs in one basket and I needed to reevaluate my next move.
To be continued…