The conversation went something like this:
Financial Aid Officer: “Your scholarship won’t be renewed for the 2009/2010 school year”
Me: “What? It’s an academic scholarship. I have the best grades in the class! How is that possible?”
Financial Aid Officer: “Sorry, that’s just the way it is.”
I was just finishing my sophomore year at Parsons School of Design in New York City and without that scholarship, I couldn’t continue.
It was devastating.
I remember riding the subway to class after that conversation and thinking through all my options. I had worked so hard to transfer to Parsons to become a fashion designer and now that dream seemed like it was melting in front of my eyes. I spent the first 20 minutes of my next class crying in the bathroom.
After a lot of thought, I forwent taking on tens of thousands of student loans, and returned back to The University of Georgia to get a more versatile degree in fashion business.
Turns out, it would take a lot more than leaving design school to ruin my dreams of becoming an apparel designer.