Beauty School Drop Out?

I hated school. I mean, I really hated school - from day one. In the first grade, I found out that pre-K and kindergarden weren't legally required.  At the end of the day, I stormed through the door and demanded to know why my Mom would send me to school before she legally had to. And my dislike of school grew from there. I had plenty of friends, liked my teachers, enjoyed school sports, did okay in my classes but for whatever reason, I never liked school.  As for my studies, if I could do minimal work and get a B or C, that was good enough for me - to the frustration of my parents. I studied with the radio on, did school readings while chatting on the phone with friends, and completed homework during the 5 minutes between classes.


Again, this frustrated my parents to no end, especially since Big Bro put in plenty of study time and excelled in class.  He was a great role model - scholar, athlete, social kid, in fact, he would have received the perfect attendance award in school if I hadn't begged him to play hooky senior year and take me skiing.  Meanwhile, I had zero interest in school and faked every illness to get out of going.


Similar to finding out that pre-K and kindergarten weren't legally required, the day came when I realized college wasn't grade 13 - it was a voluntary choice that cost a ton of money.  Well, I came home one day and declared, "college is a choice and I choose not to go."  To which my parents calmly my replied, "college is not a choice for you. You will go. We don't care what you get a degree in and we don't care what you ultimately decide to do for work but we will send you into the world debt free with a 4 year degree.  If you screw up your life after that, it is on you, not us. Period."  And that was that.


The time finally came for me to go to grade 13, err, college.  I decided on......

Why did I decide on URI? Was it because of the vast education opportunities? No. The tennis team I planned to play on? No. Was it because it is the unofficial state university of NJ as so many New Jersians go there? No. It was because it was close to the beach and a short drive to my beloved Cape Cod.  Also, my best friend, Tracy, was attending UMASS - Amherst, which wasn't too far so all in all, URI would do.


I was miserable at URI. My classes were too big for me. The campus was huge. Freshmen weren't allowed to have cars on campus (which foiled my beach and Cape Cod plans), my roommate actively practiced voodoo in our dorm room...the list goes on and on.  Every time I called my parents I would say, "I can't believe you are paying money for me to be in this prison." A bit dramatic, I know.  They told me to just gut out the first year and it would get better.


Lucky for me, Tracy was unhappy at UMASS so we would cut classes and chat on the phone all afternoon.  Or, we would hop on a train and meet up with one another.  Our favorite way to avoid school was to go to the Cape for extended weekends.  We would talk about what we would be doing if our parents hadn't forced us to get an advanced degree.  We always came up with driving cross country, no schedules, no set plans, just 2 girls in a car, living off the land wherever the road took us.  By the end of the fist semester, a plan was hatched.....we would withdraw from school, spend the holidays with our families, and then hit the open road for a year. That Christmas vacation, I packed up my car and headed to Mom and Dad's (to fill up on good food and tell them all about my exciting plan).........


Stay tuned........