I went to that meeting and sat down with this fellow and had a form. There were many colleges within the university, and by choosing a college, you were essentially choosing your major. I didn’t see anything that was really interesting to me there, and I went into the office with my application essentially incomplete.
He said, “Well, what are you interested in?”
And I said, “Well, gosh, I don’t know.” I looked down at this form, and I saw “Forestry.” I said, “Well, how about forestry? That sounds interesting.” I had this idea that we could plant trees for four years in college and drive to the upper peninsula of Michigan in utility vehicles and be lumberjacks.
But he said, “No, no, no.” So, he explained to me what might be involved in forestry.
I looked back down and said, “Well, what is this ‘A and D’?”
He said, “That’s ‘Architecture and Design.’”
And I said, “Well, what’s that?”
He said, “Well, that’s the art school”
I said, “Well, that sounds good. Could I do that?”
He looked at my transcript and said, “Well, you haven’t taken art.”
And I rose to the challenge. I don’t know exactly why — there’s a point in a teenager’s life sometimes when the temptation of pulling the wool over an adult’s eyes is irresistible. And I rose to the challenge and said to him, “Well, it’s not on my transcript, because I study privately on weekends.”
He said, “Oh, that’s impressive.”
We talked for a while, and he was finally willing to admit me into the art school.
