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College of Synchronicity

mrm878
Wed, 29 Apr 2015 00:43:14 GMT

The first institution of higher learning I attended wasn't my first choice. It wasn't even my hundredth choice. I hadn't been accepted by the college I wanted to attend, so the local university was the only place I could gain admittance at short notice. Fast forward a year. I had gotten excellent grades, but I didn’t feel like the school and I were a good fit. I sought to transfer to a new school. But where would I go? The World Wide Web was in its infancy for consumer use, so my choice of schools could only be found within Barron's Profile of American Colleges (a real doorstopper). I needed to find a school that would accept transfer students and allow me to transfer credits. I also wanted to reside in a state I'd never lived in before. But the book was overwhelming, so I polled my friends for ideas. A friend of mine told me that Pepperdine University in California had a female-to-male ratio of 4-1, so that had my immediate interest (I was 19!), but then I learned it had a strong Christian element, and having grown up around fundamentalist Christians, I did n’t want to be preached at anymore. Feeling dejected, I turned the page and saw a listing for Pitzer College. Southern California: check. Liberal Arts: check. Accepts transfer students: check. The signal from my intuitive antennae was telling me this was the place. It felt like a moment of synchronicity. I filled out the application, mailed it out, and crossed my fingers. A few weeks later, I was offered admission to Pitzer. Paul writes about taking risks that grow you, and my years at Pitzer definitely fit that description. These years occurred during Stage One (Self-Discovery), and I followed my fascinations with social activism, creative writing, and getting into long, drawn-out debates at 1 a.m. with frenemies. I became a leader on campus, learned how to navigate my way in an unfamiliar land, and landed my first professional writing job. I’m in the middle of my Builder stage, but the skills I learned during those years continue to serve me. And it all began with the fateful act of turning the right page at the right time.