College Letter
Dear College,
I can not for the life of me understand you.
Based on the general attitude that I have gathered from my classmates since about the 6th grade, my first impression of you has been pretentious and over-rated. Kids kill themselves to please you, because, based on the constructs of our fucked up society, you represent something that they don’t even fully comprehend. But still they blindly try to live up to your impossible expectations so that they can feel accepted. And for the longest time I felt compelled to strive for things, not so that I could please you, but because I truly wanted to for myself.
My first impression of you has pretty much stayed the same up until now, when I’m finally forced to meet you up close. Upon close inspection you appear to be this grand paradise where kids are free to be independent and can take charge on what they're learning and broaden their horizons on what they’re truly passionate about. I’m almost ashamed to say that I nearly fell for that façade. Based on my overall experience with you, I have found that you are nothing but a fake.
You don’t want students with a wide range of interest. You’re not about providing kids with a plethora of interesting studies they can use in order to make themselves more well-rounded individuals, as my father suggests. All you care about is getting kids who’ve known what they’ve wanted since they were five, forcing them to narrow all their interests to a single fucking major and sending them off to a good career. And that’s totally fine, but that fucks everything up for us multifaceted people who’re extremely passionate about many things.
I’m sorry, but I am not one of your “elite” brain-washed kids who want to be with you because you’re a “good school” regardless of what they’re learning. I’m not someone who’s been drawing or writing or acting since I was five or ten or twelve and has a big huge impressive portfolio to place before your feet. I don’t play on a sports team and I don’t work at a charity clinic when I’m not saving the world! I don't have a 4.0 (I have a 3.5 actually) and y'know what?...I'm not ashamed of it. I am just a kid, a normal girl who loves life, and is enthusiastic about so many things; she doesn’t know what to do with herself. I’m a girl who cannot be tied down to one anything. And I’m not gonna let some stuck-up tainted system tell me otherwise.
You literally make me sick with anxiety.
And yet, after all the shit I’ve seen you do to other kids, and after all the mental and emotional pain that you have caused me, there’s a part of me that still believes that we can work together. There’s a part of me that hopes that deep within your corrupted core, is a place that is out there for someone like me. That isn’t one of your crummy two-year JC’s but a real four-year place for normal yet passionate kids like me to explore our many interests to our fullest abilities and perhaps find something we’d never expected to find elsewhere.
I wish you weren’t so god damn intimidating, and I wish you didn’t scare the ever living shit out of me.
I hope someday that I can figure you out and perhaps then--we can be good friends.
But for now…I still don’t trust you.
Sincerely and respectfully,
-Zoe
I can not for the life of me understand you.
Based on the general attitude that I have gathered from my classmates since about the 6th grade, my first impression of you has been pretentious and over-rated. Kids kill themselves to please you, because, based on the constructs of our fucked up society, you represent something that they don’t even fully comprehend. But still they blindly try to live up to your impossible expectations so that they can feel accepted. And for the longest time I felt compelled to strive for things, not so that I could please you, but because I truly wanted to for myself.
My first impression of you has pretty much stayed the same up until now, when I’m finally forced to meet you up close. Upon close inspection you appear to be this grand paradise where kids are free to be independent and can take charge on what they're learning and broaden their horizons on what they’re truly passionate about. I’m almost ashamed to say that I nearly fell for that façade. Based on my overall experience with you, I have found that you are nothing but a fake.
You don’t want students with a wide range of interest. You’re not about providing kids with a plethora of interesting studies they can use in order to make themselves more well-rounded individuals, as my father suggests. All you care about is getting kids who’ve known what they’ve wanted since they were five, forcing them to narrow all their interests to a single fucking major and sending them off to a good career. And that’s totally fine, but that fucks everything up for us multifaceted people who’re extremely passionate about many things.
I’m sorry, but I am not one of your “elite” brain-washed kids who want to be with you because you’re a “good school” regardless of what they’re learning. I’m not someone who’s been drawing or writing or acting since I was five or ten or twelve and has a big huge impressive portfolio to place before your feet. I don’t play on a sports team and I don’t work at a charity clinic when I’m not saving the world! I don't have a 4.0 (I have a 3.5 actually) and y'know what?...I'm not ashamed of it. I am just a kid, a normal girl who loves life, and is enthusiastic about so many things; she doesn’t know what to do with herself. I’m a girl who cannot be tied down to one anything. And I’m not gonna let some stuck-up tainted system tell me otherwise.
You literally make me sick with anxiety.
And yet, after all the shit I’ve seen you do to other kids, and after all the mental and emotional pain that you have caused me, there’s a part of me that still believes that we can work together. There’s a part of me that hopes that deep within your corrupted core, is a place that is out there for someone like me. That isn’t one of your crummy two-year JC’s but a real four-year place for normal yet passionate kids like me to explore our many interests to our fullest abilities and perhaps find something we’d never expected to find elsewhere.
I wish you weren’t so god damn intimidating, and I wish you didn’t scare the ever living shit out of me.
I hope someday that I can figure you out and perhaps then--we can be good friends.
But for now…I still don’t trust you.
Sincerely and respectfully,
-Zoe