Once upon a time I was in tenth grade walking to lunch with my friend Madison when we saw this table set up with some flyers, pamphlets, and pens. The first thing that came out of my mouth was not, “I wonder what that’s about” but instead, “Oh my god Madison I want a pen I really want a pen.” My friend Madison replied to me by saying, “Georgia if you really want a pen that badly then you should go get a pen!” Of course I couldn’t just walk up to this lady’s stand, ask for a pen and walk away. That would be rude. I had to at least seem mildly interested in what the topic was. It was at that point in time when I finally decided to read the banner hanging by the table. It read, Mississippi School of the Arts. I had no idea Mississippi had a college specializing in Arts.
As my obsession for pens had grown over the years, I had stopped by multiple stands pretending to be interested in them just to get a pen. Whether they be a college or a business, I was determined to obtain a pen.
Madison and I got our lunch trays and sat down at our usual table which just so happened to be right across from the lady who was at the stand with the Mississippi School of the Arts. The entire time while we were eating lunch I kept talking to Madison about how I could approach the situation, seeming like I was interested in the school even though I wasn’t. In the end Madison finally yelled at me because she was sick of me plotting about a pen and told me to just go up to the stand and ask about the school and then ask for a pen. I ended up doing just that. I walked up to the stand and said something along the lines of, “So what’s this about?” The lady who was working the stand had really long hair. She told me that it was a residential high school for grades 11 and 12 to specialize in one of six disciplines, Dance, Vocal, Theater, Literature, Visual, and Media. This immediately caught my attention as I had been interested in literature and dance for years. As she told me more about the school I began to ask more questions and as I was more interested in the school. When I was done asking questions, she had me fill out a sheet of paper with one of the very pens I had been trying to achieve from the start. The paper was just so they could contact me to give me more information about the school so of course I filled it out as I was very interested (I also kept the pen).
When I went back to the lunch table where Madison was she asked me what took so long and I told her about the school and that I wanted to apply and she said to me something like “God dammit Georgia! You were supposed to get a pen, not go to a new school!”
After school I called my mom to tell her about the school and she fully supported me. I then called my friend Dannica and told her about the school and she got really interested and wanted to apply to the school. Fast forward to the present day while I’m writing this blog, both Dannica and I go to school at the Mississippi School of the Arts and love it here.
As a note to those of you who are reading this, if you want the pen from the business or college stand, go get it. You may end up going to the school of your dreams.
Its funny how the tiniest of things lead to the biggest of outcomes.
For me, My grandpa saw a Facebook ad, and sent it to my mom. Then my mom showed me.
And then we realized… It was Wayyy too late to apply. Like moths late. But my dad contacted them and asked if there was anything we could do. And they said they could squeeze me in for the try out thing.
Yippie for pens!! This is such a neat story. An origin story, even.
I think it’s super funny that the only reason your here is because you wanted a pen because it’s the same for me if the stands have anything cool that I want I’ll go up to the people just to get it and most time I barely listen to what they say.