Momma & School
So, let's start with today before we move to the stuff that happened yesterday.
Mom was supposed to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM. We left the house at 4:30 AM. We got her to the hospital, got her checked in and then had to wait an hour and a half until they would let us back to see her. When we finally got back there, they said her sugar was too high. I don't remember what they said it was, but it was higher then normal. When your sugar is high, it takes up more fluid in the system, so the cells that need to get to certain places can't get there - or get there as fast. At least that's what the doctor said. He also said that it lowers your ability to fight infection. And Mom has a knack for getting infections in the hospital. We left the hospital and we're home around 9. I crawled back in bed and slept into the afternoon. I think I had gotten 3 or 4 hours of sleep last night.
Now, let's talk about yesterday. I went to go and see the school I've been talking about. Well, first, I got into the city and went to see my sister at work. We had been planning on lunch. She couldn't take lunch until later, so we planned for whenever I was finished. The school isn't far from either my sister's work or her house. Which I thought was nice. (Also, even though my sister is against me going to school there - she graduated from there - she said I could stay with her when the roads were bad, no problem. Also, a perk.)
Before I got a tour, I talked to this guy from Admissions. He was very nice, even with his white man fro and his muttonchops. (He's a Civil War reenactor.) He was nice. He reminded me of my brother (which may or may not be a good thing.) He graduated from the school - an Associate's Degree in Graphic Design. He gave me some line about wanting to help people and that's why he came back and worked at the school. While they may be true, I don't think it was the whole truth. It wasn't a ringing endorsement for the school.
He took me through the program. I had some questions. He answered most of them. I asked if the degree would qualify me to work in television as well - like on Grey's Anatomy or Glee or Bones or something. He said that he didn't know. That no one from the program had gone and done that before. The program is still relatively young. They first group of people graduated in 2009. So, it hasn't been around long. He said that he would have one of the Master Mentors give me a call. It's something they apparently do for anyone seriously considering the program. There are limited number of seats. 12.
That's right, they only except 12 people every October. The guy I talked to said there were less than 6 left. He didn't know exactly how many slots were left. I wasn't sure if he was trying to intimidate me away or coax me into rushing the Admissions process.
Then I had to take some tests - basic English and Math stuff. Nothing too hard. The first was okay, the second one was timed. The second one freaked me out. I passed them, though, so that's okay.
The program doesn't focus as much on the writing as I would like. At least, the guy from Admissions didn't seem to think so. That was the whole reason I was looking into the program. I recently went over all the things I've wanted to be when I "grow up." And they were all creative. In my last years of high school, I wanted to be a Recording Engineer. (That would have been cool). But I went to a workshop for a week on the other side of the state and they instructors said that it was mainly a boys game and that people in the industry end up working on projects like audio books instead of music. Well, I wanted to work on the music part and I'm a girl, so it didn't seem like a good fit. Plus, my parents and I were getting along at the time, and I had no way to get the money to go to school. The last few things I've thought about doing have all been based on writing - mostly I want to write books. But I love the idea of writing television and movies.
There's no point in fighting it anymore. That's what I want to do.
When I told they guy from Admissions that I finished my first draft on a novel last November for NANOWRIMO, he had two questions:"Do you have an Agent?" and "Are you planning on turning that book into a movie?"
Let me rant for a second:
Movies based on books are all well and good, okay, but I think the industry needs to get a little more creative. I think they need to start coming up with their own ideas. And I want to be able to write for all of these mediums: books, television, and movies. I want to come up with an idea, figure out the best medium in which to tell the story, and just freaking do it. So, if an idea I have for a book would be better off as a movie, then I'm all for it. Do you see what I'm saying? But I couldn't really say anything, because I didn't want to ruin my chances of getting in.
Even though I haven't decided anything yet.
The school is small. And the program starts you out with commercials. Then I think you move to shorts and the documentaries. Then you move from that to features. I'm just not sure how well I'd do with documentaries. I'm not a non-fiction type of girl. In fact, I told him at one point that my writing tends to have fantasy elements - magic, powers, mythical creatures. That might be why I'm having problems with the script I'm writing now - no magic.
The school is an hour away from my house. And it's another hour home. It takes half a tank to get there and back. (And it was snowing, SNOWING, on my way home. It was not fun. I hate driving interstate.) I'm not sure I could afford the gas. If I go forward with this, I'll be going from 40 hours a week to 24 hours a week. Most likely. Classes are Monday-Thursday, except when they aren't. It would be tough financially (and I haven't even gotten to the tuition and stuff yet).
Actually, this is a good time to talk about that. It'll be $21,000 to get my Associates Degree. Not too bad, I guess. This doesn't include books. Instead of semesters, this school has terms. Terms are 9 weeks long - I think. And then you get one week off (or about ten days with the weekend.) And if you have to be new books each term? Holy crap. And then there's the camera. Each group coming in is assigned a different camera. You have to buy it and it varies every year. The guy from Admissions said it could be $300 or $1000. It would be mine to keep, but holy crap. That's a lot of money.
I did talk to the main Professor for a little bit, but he was in the middle of class, so we didn't talk much. He seems very nice. He told me there's an Open House coming up soon. I'm thinking about going to check it out. He also said there's a film festival in June. I might check that out, too. But if I want to do this, I have to get a move on. And I'm not sure I want to do this.
Oh, and they don't look at your SAT or ACT scores. I did take the SATs. They want transcripts from high school and the college that I went to before - the college that I did badly at (my Mom was in the hospital almost my whole first semester and we almost lost her - twice) It was a rough time. Plus, my best friend got pregnant and engaged. I'm not trying to make excuses (or maybe I am) but I don't think that my college transcripts will go over so well.
Oh, oh, oh, I forgot to tell you the thing that pisses me off the most. There is a $25 dollar fee you pay when you send in your admission form. It's non-refundable and there's no way to get out of it. A lot of times, if you go and visit a college and get a tour, you can get out of the fee to apply. Not here. And the idea of spending $25 on nothing, infuriates me greatly.
I don't know what I'm going to do. We'll see, but it isn't looking very good.
And back to Mom -
Her primary doctor is going to get her sugars under control and I guess they're going to try again in a few weeks. I'll keep you updated.