One day much like several others I would incur, I left the house with 50$ and came back with 5$, the majority of which was spent on school supplies; and after 2 years including many days of scenes like this, it finally clicked. I snapped. Why is it that we as college students bust our asses in school, get every kind of loan possible, and sign away our future life savings with promissory notes? Does it really even matter what school we go to as long as we have a legit degree and extensive resume? It seems unthinkable but lets be honest, I'm in school for fashion business, I can very well just drop out and go work for a company and make my way up to the position I'm going to school for. Even a design student with enough constructional knowledge could impress a designer and intern their way to the top like a lot of current designers have(a la Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors), or sell their clothes out of their dorms (a la Alexander Wang). So is the degree and the money we're spending to earn it worth the financial hole were digging for ourselves?
Recently I decided to transfer to a more traditional university. In the fall I will be attending Northern Illinois University. I will still be studying fashion just under a different name. Many people have criticized this choice. But among other numerous reasons to my change of institutions the biggest would be that I have come to the conclusion that it is not worth it to me to spend all this money at a private college in the city of Chicago, when I can go to a cheaper school and get an equivalent education. When I think of the classmates I'm leaving behind at Columbia, I think of how they're going to be paying off those 20k + loans 3 to 6 months after graduation and I'm convinced that their the foolish ones. I mean can I be real? We (seeing as I still currently attend Columbia) go to an ART school. We're 'art' majors. A friend of mine knew of a Columbia student who recently dropped out. At first this idea seemed like suicide to me, but when I inquired why the promising young artist decided this, she said he replied "because I pay 30k a year to paint". Yep, pretty much.
I've seen that same scenario happen numerous times. The friends I had coming into Freshman year, split into half. Transferring to schools like Moorehouse, UIC, and Roosevelt. And not just art students in the south loop circle of School of Art Institute, Columbia, and The Art Institutes alike. Friends from all different schools: Mizzou, U of I, NYU, Howard...we all pay insane amounts of money every year to earn a degree that may or may not, grant us the degree that the baby versions of ourselves (or for some high school versions) always wanted. Not to mention the fact that I am a fashion student, which most consider more of a hobby then a career option, to my complicated complex in the pursuit of education. And what if, as a fashion student, we didn't go to one of the top fashion institutions of this country such as Fashion Institute of Technology, or the infamous Parsons or Pratt Institute or FIDM? Does that limit us to lower positions like 'regional coordinator' or 'unknown designer' behind big brand names? Does that mean are dreams and aspirations are any less within reach? Who really knows?
Not that I'm knocking any of those positions or schools or career paths, to each its own. But that being said, the conclusion I have come up with in this conundrum that I don't know how else to describe but pure 'injustice'; is that the road in which you get to your destination doesn't matter nearly as much as the passion and perseverance that you hold onto every step of the journey. What really matters it what you do with whats dealt, and the willingness to do what it takes to get what you want. Its very possible that one day I might look back and regret transferring to NIU and not staying at Columbia, or not applying to Parsons, or maybe even dropping out of school all together, saving myself from loan sharks and working my way up at say Bloomingdales or Nordstroms. But each person must lay out the path for themselves that they see fit and that makes sense with your life and in your situations. One day I will be a fashion stylist, I will own my own boutique, and I will launch a fashion line. And nothing; not the school or city I'm in, or bad grade I may receive, or retail job I get fired from, is going to stand in the way of that. And that my friends, I feel is the answer to the injustice of our countries education system, and the definition of true aesthetic value: passion, sacrifice, and perseverance. #ThatIsAll
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