Follow Your Heart
What do you plan to do with your life?
I remember the first time this question was asked of me in a serious adult-like tone. It was two years ago. That’s the moment it dawned on me that I would have to sit down and talk to my parents about me wanting to pursue art as a career. I opened the conversation with them and was met by expected skepticism. I spent a year working on various art projects and talking to them about the kind of career and opportunities I dreamed of.
March 2020, when the pandemic locked my whole family in our house, I took the extra time I had to educate myself about my chosen field and educational options. I started by looking for art colleges locally. Nothing felt like the right fit. After a year of searching, I stumbled upon a college fair style webinar that was collectively organized by art colleges across the world. I remember a switch flipping in my head – I had found what I was looking for. Within a week I was all in. I went through every single college website and came up with a list of art colleges I wanted to apply to. This was the opportunity to really learn the craft I wanted to build into my career.
I had figured out what I wanted, but didn’t have much of an idea on how to apply. After looking at various admissions counseling services, I was finally introduced to Mr. Sheldon. He not only knew the whole admissions process, he also knew a great deal about creative streams and what I needed to do to build my portfolio. We worked together to finalize the list of colleges, and I applied to a total of nine colleges. We went back and forth on building the Common App essay that really represented me and my voice. He helped with sorting the logistics from transcripts to the test reporting. The feedback I received on my art portfolio from Mr. Sheldon and his team were very helpful. I better understood what colleges were looking for and worked on a set of pieces that showcased my wide range of skills and my passion for street art.
Other admissions counselors I had spoken with told us the process of applying was two years and we would not be able to put a quality application on time. With Mr. Sheldon’s support this girl who found it nerve racking to place an order at Starbucks, started writing emails, scheduled phone calls for counseling and attended an internship under a NYU professor. It was all new to a student who was conditioned in a system where mentors directly spoke to parents instead of students. I had a say in the decisions that shaped my college experience and it was scary, yet liberating at the same time.
I remember the day I got accepted into my dream college, SAIC. I had Covid and was quarantined in my room. As soon as I read the email, I burst out of my room, ran down the staircase to tell my parents the news. My parents were ecstatic, after a brief celebration I went back into quarantine. I had two dream colleges on my list so accepting this admit was a no-brainer. The interesting twist was that I also got an admit to Pratt with a very tempting scholarship. I had to choose between a top school with a scholarship and my dream school. After thoroughly considering all the pros and cons it came down to the fact that SAIC was the better fit for what I wanted to learn. Every college has a unique significance that could play a key role in a student’s career and no one can make that decision better than the student themselves.
The most valuable lesson I learnt over the last few years was to not give up. As simple as that sounds, it rings very true to where I am in life right now. Back when I was a more naive 14 years old I decided “I don’t want to live the kind of life that is expected of me” and did something about it. I feel gratitude towards myself for not giving up on me. From convincing my parents to completing my application under a time crunch, there were multiple times I doubted my ability to pull it all off. The point I’m trying to get across here is that perseverance through the hard times is what got me to the place I’ve always dreamed of being. The entire journey has been a very humbling and rewarding experience.
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