From Nine to None, and eventually, to One by Hannah

From Nine to None, and eventually, to One by Hannah - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

“…And that’s what I wanna be when I grow up!” Declared a slightly buck-toothed, brown-haired little girl to her chuckling parents – as well as to almost everyone else she came into contact with; She had just proudly recited her thoroughly-contemplated list of 9 or more occupations – all of which she was certain she would fulfill! As an extremely imaginative and easily-inspired six-year-old I wanted to be any and almost everything. From veterinarian to massage therapist (as was the occupation of my mom) no position was too big, and no position was too small. As time went on, however, said list became smaller and smaller until it was, eventually, almost entirely blank.

“What on earth am I supposed to do when I grew up?! What do I even enjoy doing? How am I supposed to know what I would want to do 10 years from now?!” These were the questions that flooded my 12-year old mind as I struggled to complete an online career-matching quiz (per the request of my sixth-grade technology teacher). I continued to trudge through the seemingly-irrelevant (and also quite random) questions until…”AT LAST! I’M FINISHED!” I thought aloud. I sat in amazement and stared at my final two career matches: graphic designer…and something else that didn’t matter! This was it! I decided then and there, with very little knowledge about the occupation I might add, that I was going to become a graphic designer!

Now, that career choice may seem like it was made pretty hastily, and I reassure you that it totally was, however, through the course of time I actually began to research about graphic designers and the like, and the more information I received the more my fascination grew! All of this occasional research took place over the span of about 5 years, and by then everything about the position sounded great! But towards the end of tenth grade I was still unsure about whether or not graphic design was really the right choice for me. Well, I’m pleased to say that everything clicked into place about a year after that! I had the privilege of taking one graphic design class and another mixed technology class my eleventh and twelfth grades, and after witnessing the information I had read about actually coming to life it all just made sense!

After all, I had always been an artsy kid…Looking back through my childhood years, I was constantly creating things – from drawing on paper to playing art-related computer games to growing up a little and creating “fancy” posters in Microsoft Word – it seems, although previously unbeknownst to me, that graphic design had continuously surrounded the activities of my (even) younger years. Today, I am thrilled to be able to call myself a graphic design major, and I’m absolutely ecstatic to begin this next chapter of my life! I look forward to what this college journey will bring, and I know that my six-year-old self would be completely enraptured by and maybe even expectant of my career choice.