My Huckleberry Friend, Moon River, & Me

The more and more I read works by new authors, watch new shows with new actors, run into professionals here and there, I realize how grateful I am to have attended NYU. It is a gem of a school. It is the only school in my 24 years in which I have pride for. I applied to that university on a whim, as an excuse to get as far away from my parents as possible. I knew nothing of that school, I knew nothing of New York, and I knew nothing of art degree programs. NYU accepted me, and on the record, is one of two schools that opened their doors. I got rejected by every other school, from low tier to high tier levels. Appalling was my brother's reaction. "How did you get into NYU with a scholarship and not even get waitlisted at Northeastern?". Meant to be is what I have realized. There is really no other school in the U.S. like NYU. It is the largest private university in the country and it has the most students who study abroad. Those are just some trivial facts. But to me, and I think to all alumni, we have realized that our alma mater is a broth of top-notch education, diverse viewpoints of peers/professors from all over the earth, and an integration of it's own influential location into each student's program.

Granted, you usually learn more in college, than any other time in your life prior; but seriously, I learned so damn much from NYU and just living in New York. And there was still so much to learn, it broke my heart to have graduated traditionally at four years. I would be a student of NYU for life if I could and if I was a millionaire. My parents did well, and I thank them for financially supplying this wonderful experience in my life. They sent me off, on my own, to some other-worldly place to learn, understand, and mature into the person I am today. That is how every parent should do to their children. You send them off so that they will grow. You let them stay in a suburban town, and they will learn nothing, they will know nothing. They stay at the mental and/or intellectual age of 18 forever. Okay, not forever, but it's seriously slowed.

NYU is so great because of this: you are constantly surrounded by classmates from different states/countries, different religions/cultures, different programs of study, and different viewpoints on every aspect of society or life in general; you are constantly in manhattan's time capsule where history is written all over the place and you are learning about not only New York but the beginnings of America and it's future; you are constantly integrated into the real world while going to school where the people you meet in and out of school are professionals - there becomes no distinction and no segregation; you are constantly involved in something that directly/indirectly influences a current movement just because you are living there and are a student giving opinions at NYU;

Hence, students mature faster at secular and large universities such as NYU. You become not only more knowledgeable about everything, but you become more serious about things. More opinionated. More active. More capable in as many fields that you can relate to. You also become more courteous and open to peoples' viewpoints, backgrounds, and even tastes. Narrowminded students at NYU do not exist. I have too much pride, and this entry is becoming quite vain. But if you compare your state school or city school to a large top tier school, you will see the differences in students, even if the level of programs are just as difficult or well-known, the students make all the difference as well as the location.

I cannot begin to explain or have I ever been able to explain my experiences at NYU and living in New York to everyone here at home in Houston. There's just too much, and you wouldn't understand until you leave like I did. It is sometimes frustrating being back here. I am not surrounded by the same type of people as I was back east. I cannot just start talking about what I read in the newspaper this morning to my friends. I can't say hey let's go picnic. I can't say want to spend a day looking at exhibits? I can't say hey lets go watch this foreign film. I can't say hey lets go get a beer at 3pm. I can't say hey let's just walk there? I can't say hey let's go to a buddhist temple for fun even though you and I are actually Christians. Conformity and practicality are essentials that make up this suburban town and all the others around the country.

If you think outside the box, you will live outside the box. Things aren't supposed to be, they are what you make them to be. You give things function. There's no such thing as a system, a plan, or a schedule. The box drives me nuts. People in the box can drive me nuts. Arguing with them is simply futile. They will never respect your points even though you respect theirs with the utmost consideration. In turn, I feel that people in the box are just more judgemental and naive. And maybe that's why "hicks" are found to be more racist.

Of course, everyone in art school knows how the world thinks of "art". We learn all the mainstream terms that people use out of context and etc. I could go on about how much we learned about terrible misconceptions of "art" and artists. But that would be too droning and would sound snobby even if I was just making a point. My pet peeve was like every art student, a person who knows nothing about art calling things "artsy" or saying stuff like "what? this is art? I can make this in my garage". Art is not something you always BUY or hang next to your armoire. And "artsy" can apply to so many broad things, it's just best not to ever use that term in front of / or to describe a real working artist. We cringe at that word. But see, I never say anything when people say this to my face all the freakin' time. Because they don't know this. Only art school junkies and professors and people would know that this is offensive. What people do not know, I cannot judge them on. It becomes trivial.

So my biggest pet peeve, are people who judge YOU, even though they don't even know anything about what they/you are talking about. Like one of my friends who simply got mad at me for supporting Obama because he truly believed Obama was part of some terrorist regime working his way into American power. I could go one about other people and how they act towards me simply because I am different from them, but I won't. All I am saying, is just be mutual as you can in life because you really have to respect other people's take on things, their knowledge of things, and their actions. Well of course I slip out of say frustration or being impatient or forgetting who I am talkikng to, and I kick myself when I realize that I have offended or hurt them. We're not all perfect. But keeping things mutual is key to not only learning but keeping things cool.

I don't know why I wrote all of this jumbo, I guess I'm still not happy where I am living even though there is so much to do here, so many beautiful spots, and it can be quite urban in many parts. I am so honest in this entry because I'm am for certain that no one has read this to the end, unless your name is Erica Kim. lol. But I do not particularly miss New York/NYU in that attachment/dependent way as I did the first few months I moved, but I miss it in the way that you thirst for water even though everyone's giving you fruit punch. Okay that was a lame analogy that probably made no sense. But it's 4AM, and I don't care to wake up early tomorrow and be part of this town.