After perusing the stiff pages, you set the journal down and return to exploring The Rubber Paw's study
During the Spring of 2002, I looked at several colleges to attend. I had been attending »the American College of Computer and Information Sciences through correspondence, but I decided to study writing (my amazing friend Jonathan Brownell started three months before me in April 2001 and somehow finished Spring 2003, while I was a sophomore in college. Now he works for HP. Go figure.). I was intrigued by the as-advertised unique approach of »Patrick Henry College toward apprenticeship: practical experience in learning. I liked the idea of having a novel be my requirement to graduate.
The entrance requirements are pretty tough, so I worked hard on my application. I had to write numerous essays for them, and early on, I decided to give it my best. I decided to use the writing assignments as an excuse to snapshot my thinking at the time. The idea was to use them as a reminder to stay off the beaten path, to stay true to my goals at the time of writing.
I have learned a lot since then, but they provide a good reminder of where I was then, how far I have come since then, and a challenge to keep changing for the better while still staying true to what's excellent. It also reminds me of my days of word-choice writing (auugh!).
Two Important Educational Experiences
Essay Describing My Spiritual Faith
Article Review On Sociopolitical Topic
I researched the article review from the »Etown College Library. I wrote the essays while sitting on a bench in a beautiful garden area of »Elizabethtown College. While I wrote, Dr_Leap saw me and started talking with me. He asked me to consider Etown.
I visited PHC. The people there were smart, at least on paper. Class was intensely lecture based, even in Literature classes. When profs asked questions, there was profound (but smart) silence. The answers were obvious, at least to me (of course, I'm now a Literature major). Most students dressed for success and acted professionally. They knew they were going places. I decided not to go to PHC.
(Now, several years later, I have some good friends attending. I hear it's much better)
I thought a bit about »Elizabethtown College, but it was prohibitively expensive. I had been playing my trumpet in the college's Concert Band and Wind Ensemble for the past year, and to be honest, I was somewhat disturbed by some things I heard. However, on a whim, I decided to apply. There was only one essay question on the application.
Elizabethtown College Application Essay
Things got very complicated when Elizabethtown chose to award me with a Presidential Scholarship, for nearly half of my education and placed me in the Hershey Foods Honors Program, though the deadline was long past.
Thus began an incredibly long decision-making process with my parents. My parents wanted me to seriously consider »several »other »colleges, but I realized something after my visit to »Patrick Henry College. I felt out of place at PHC, but I felt very comfortable at Etown. I had been using the college's library for years, I had been in the concert band, and I felt 100% comfortable on the scenic campus.
After some more intense discussion, we decided I would commute to Etown, only 8 minutes away. I started in the Fall of 2002 as a Sophmore Computer Science and Professional Writing double major in the Hershey_Foods_Honors_Program.