The Art of Consideration by Kelli

The Art of Consideration by Kelli - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

The first time I toured UT, I was absolutely sure of my feelings: it was the ugliest, worst school in existence, and I would never go there. I dreamed of attending a prestigious journalism school, one that Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer would see on a resume and faint, or at least gasp loudly enough to induce a response from their producers. As I looked at the traffic-cone orange on my guide’s tee shirt and fields of cranes and bulldozers surrounding Cumberland Avenue, I found more reasons to choose the queenly violet and gothic castles of Northwestern University. I tuned out my tour guide for the rest of the excruciating walk up “The Hill” and instead focused on my increasingly defined calf muscles and the prospect of never returning to the dreadful place my parents once called home.

A year later, I had seen Rhodes College, Washington University, and George Mason and still hadn’t found my place. I was surrounded by people who wanted to make Nobel prize winning discoveries and influence eventual world peace at the United Nations, and I was inspired by their astounding dreams and even more astounding motivation. However, they seemed to be less impressed with me: instead of leading the world directly through politics and innovation, I wanted to run the action behind the scenes through my writing, hoping to inform and interest the people along the way. Each person I met was increasingly more interesting than the last, but the students weren’t connected, and they didn’t push each other to improve: they were a body of individuals who just so happened to live together.

Going into my junior year, I felt hopeless: I had known my exact education plan for almost a decade, only to change it at the last minute. Out of options, I visited my best friend at the University of Kentucky. I felt a deep sense of school spirit uniting the students, vibrating under the sidewalks and through the buildings and into the students. I wrote down the things I loved about the school: big student body, outstanding school spirit, close to home, and others. I showed my mom the list, only for her to bring up her Alma Mater: UT. I finally agreed to a real visit: a football game and a tour I actually listened to, which focused on the College of Education, different clubs on campus, and the honors programs. I felt I had finally found a place where I could be academically challenged while also forming close bonds both inside and outside these programs. I had found my home, but not without a cost.

I had spent years and thousands of dollars trying to find my perfect fit, only to discover it right under my nose, where everyone had been telling me to look. As Donald Foster once said , “No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar.” Even though I learned from my mistake and gave UT a second chance, I’ve continued to learn from this one college tour. I’ve learned to listen to those around me, but I also know how to truly listen to myself, because in the end, I have to deal with the consequences of my choices.