Earlier on this morning, I received an email from one of the schools I am applying to for grad school telling me to contact them if I had any questions in regards to the application process (If you do not remember from my first post, I plan on pursuing an MFA in Playwriting/Dramatic Writing). This prompted the sending out of emails to the heads of department at my top five choices: Carnegie Mellon, Brown, NYU: Tisch, University of Iowa, and University of Idaho. I asked three questions of them: 1) What do you look for in potential students; 2) What are things, coursework or extracurricular, that might be advantageous for the potential student to do; and, my favorite, 3) What is one thing you have seen in a play, either written or performed, that you loathed, or was a pet peeve? I have received only one reply thus far, which is actually a lot quicker than I was expecting to receive, and that person's email, especially their answers, moved their university up in my rankings. However, it also made me realize the gravity of what I'm preparing to do.
When kids are in high school, they are bombarded with the statement, "The decisions you make today will affect your future." Back then it means, getting a DUI will cost them more in the future than it will now, but in college it means that you are deciding what you want to do with your life. The email that I received back blatantly stated that the students that get accepted into the program are really pursuing a life in scriptwriting and are immediately thrust into a life of being a scriptwriter, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Now this could just be the way that I had always perceived things, but I have never really known someone that followed such an immense dream in a business like the theatre arts and truly made it. That is not to say that I do not have friends that have followed their dreams and succeeded, but I think they just had dreams that were more easily attainable, or were somehow modified to appease their situations.
There really is not a way to walk oneself out of a statement like that, but I will not delete it, because if you are disappointed by that, then odds are you did not want your dream bad enough. To which I say, "Stay curious and stay thirsty, my friends." At the same time, be thankful. There may come a time when you look back on life and ask, "What if?" about certain situations, but when those situations come around make sure you give heed to the question, "Why not?" Sometimes the reasons why not outweigh the what ifs. Look for the what ifs that excite you the most, and go from there.
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