Adventure Is Out There (in Chicago)!

Welcome back! I have a life update for all you curious readers!

In the most recent months before I graduated high school, I had to audition for colleges, for next year. If you were wondering what major I'm going for, I'm going for theatre!!! And, if you're wondering what the school I decided to go to, I chose to go blue, and go to DePaul University in Chicago! I'll be attending The Theatre School at DePaul University; a conservatory inside of a university. I'm ecstatic about attending in september, and I hope to keep writing blog posts while I'm there. To keep my sanity and to hopefully spread the word of what is to be a fantastic college experience.

I chose to do a BA instead of a BFA during my initial application process. In the end I've decided to do a BFA at DePaul. Anyways, for the longest time,  I thought I was going to be doing a BA, so I applied to Boston College, The Juilliard School, New York University,  Sarah Lawrence College, University of New Hampshire,  DePaul (of course), and one more I can't remember the name of.  I had to audition at Juilliard and have an interview for DePaul. The audition at Juilliard was one that was once in a lifetime, and I hope to do another one there maybe next year, or the year after that.


While going online and searching for schools is fun, I do have a little story for you about actually going out into REAL LIFE and doing the college thing that people do.

I'll take you back to January of 2016. We arrived in New York City on a Thursday night, and we hear weather reports, that night, of a blizzard coming into New York City, that will drop about 30 inches of snow. My interview was on Friday evening at 6 p.m. and the blizzard started around 12 a.m. Friday night. There were light flurries later Thursday evening as I emerged from the stuffy underground of NYC. The next morning, I woke up at 12 p.m. to find a snow-covered city that never sleeps, bustling with sidewalk pedestrians and very few cars on the roadway. As I turned the TV on the Governor of New York decided to put out a travel ban on all non-emergency vehicles. Luckily my interview was only a few blocks away from my hotel, so I could walk to my interview. Once I reached the outside after a cozy breakfast at the hotel, I saw that the blizzard was still in full force and many restaurants were being forced to shut down due to poor road conditions for employees.

My mother and I went out, got some food before the stores closed, and went back to my hotel room to prepare for my interview. About a few hours before my interview I came up with any questions that I could think of for this interview. I wrote about 3 pages of questions for my interview LOL. I sectioned off every category of questions I had, and I knew I was ready.

The clock would read 5:30 p.m. and we would make our departure. The interview was at 6 and I needed to walk down a snow-covered street, with the blizzard in full force, while in a full piece suit. It was absolute insanity, but it was worth it. We finally reach the building and go inside. Once inside this cozy building, we go up the small elevator to have the doors open up to this very exciting area that is commonly used for auditions, every single day in New York. I'm told to go down 1 hallway and take a right and take a left and go down another hallway, to get down to the hallway where the DePaul interviews are happening. I finally end up in the right room and I take a deep breath. The DePaul admissions staff were extremely nice and wonderfully inviting to my mother and I. Then without further ado, I conduct my interview with a man named Dean, who was actually the Dean of the Theatre School.

It turned out he and I had a lot in common! He had played the role of Charlie Brown when he was younger, and he was also into playwriting! (As I am too :) ). We were a good match for each other and I felt instantly better about the interview as I sat down and talked with him. In the end, I could not tell whether or not they would accept me. I tried my best to come prepared and ask as many questions as I could, and I did my best.

Now for their decision, they accepted me out of thousands of people.   am pleased to say that I will be part of the class of 2020 at DePaul University.

While this is all very exciting, it comes with a bit of stress as well. I leave my family whom I have seemed to drift from a bit over the past year. I really try to do things myself and be independent (minus doing laundry). 

But most of all, I am going to try long distance with my girlfriend, Izzy. I know it's hard on her to have me so far away in Chicago while she is in Durham, NH at UNH. I actually applied to UNH and got in and even accepted their offer to go, but after I heard back from Depaul, I had a.tough choice to make. Stay at UNH and hope for the best, or go to Chicago and really give it my all. I knew Izzy would be upset that she couldn't have me at school, but I hope she's proud of my choices and goals for my future. Like I said, we're going to try long distance and we're gonna try to make it work. I sure hope it works. I know I'm going to meet otber fantastic people, but it's not everyday where you meet a girl as special and as beautiful as Izzy. While I am so excited, this is arguably one of the harder choices I've had to make in my life. 

Thank you for reading and I hope to have more posts to come as I near MOVE IN DAY!!! August 31st to be exact! Talk to you all soon! Tah tah for now

-Ryan H