ASSIGNMENTS:
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Sara
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
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REPORTS:
PREVIOUS NEXT
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Advice to Sara at age 17
(1)Don't be so upset about not being able to go to Bard College. I know it would have been amazing. If you'd gotten slightly better grades, you could have won that full scholarship. Do you want to bankrupt your parents? Of course not.
(2)You will meet many interesting folks at Rutgers, but don't even think about living in an all girls dorm on the Douglas campus. These women will be pledging sororities, etc. They will be similar to the girls you went to high school with. Live on the main campus and stay in the art student's dorm, it will be the only way to find friends and get through your first year. Otherwise you'll be adrift and fall into a depression. And for the love of God, break up with your high school boyfriend; I cannot stress this enough. Have as much fun as possible, and meet lots of boys. Don't be so dour and uptight. Start drinking and smoking pot, this is very important.
(3)You will have to leave Rutgers. It's inevitable, your parents are broke. You will get free tuition at an art school in Philadelphia, which will make you happy, but your happiness will be curtailed because you will have to commute to college from your parent's house in New Jersey for three years. Realize now that you need to make a priority of getting away from your parents. You may not know it now, but they are suffocating you, and this will happen as long as you're near them. I don't know how this will be accomplished...I know this sounds like madness, but it would be worth giving up the full ride to school in order to escape them. You will realize when you are about 30 that they're influence was incredibly negative and crippling.
(4)When it crosses your mind to major in painting, don't do it. Take some classes, but don't declare painting as your major. Use a computer as much as possible, or you will be working at menial jobs for minimum wage when you graduate, accruing debt and living in squalor in very bad Philadelphia neighborhoods with unscrupulous landlords. All of this will prematurely age you, making anxiety a permanent part of your life, giving you grey hair and a hopeless aspect. This will affect your relationships, everything. Don't take any psychotropic medication.
(5)Learn to play the drums sooner, because music will end up being the most important thing in your life after college, so you want to become really good at it.
(6)Date John for one night, not two years. Avoid Brendan; the confusion he causes you will be something you'll puzzle about for years. Learn to end relationships sooner, or you will develop the habit of letting them last much too long.
(7)Go to graduate school soon after getting your BFA. Move away from Philadelphia, because many years from now you'll realize that making art there is like making it at the bottom of a deep hole. Always play in a band, it will become a respite from the frustration making art causes you.
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