The Evergreen State College Top Questions

Plan! College is the biggest investment you can make in yourself. Make it count! Don't waste your parent's or your money. It is your opportunity to launch. You will learn more about yourself, your limits, and your ability than you ever will anywhere else. It is scary. It is challenging. It is worth all of the work you put into it. Attending college pushes you to become who you were meant to be, whoever that is. On a social note, you will have the opportunity to meet the most amazing people! You might meet your first love or your last! You may meet your new best friend. You will meet friends for life. This is your time. Don't focus on that guy and making sure he/they are happy. Focus on making you happy. Follow your dreams and don't worry about pleasing everyone. You will disappoint people. You will also exceed all (including your own) expectations. During the whole duration of your college career, you will laugh, you will cry, and you will feel more than you have ever felt before. You will hit your highest of highs, your lowest of lows but you will succeed.

To Self, I know you're afraid. You're just finishing up high school, and the next step to take seems to be college. For others, this may be the best path, but for you, I ask you to wait. Discover what is out there, and see more of the world. School will always be there, but in order to get the most out of it, you'll need to find yourself first. You may think that things are set in stone, but you will grow more over the next 5 years than you ever have before. Be patient in your path, and know, the greatest joys are yet to come. I am proud of who you are, but the current moment is fleeting. If you leave for college now, you will find yourself unprepared. Continue to stay curious, and never lose sight of what you love. For one day, that passion will lead you into opportunities you have never dreamed of. Your fate is unfolding; Follow it.

Once you're there, once you're in your bed, once you venture out by yourself and discover new places and new things you love, the fears won't be so prevalent. Because there are things to fear most everyday. Every single thing you do could give reason to make you fret. But soon you'll be reading vastly different things, you'll meet vastly different people. You'll enter a place of change, but it's good. It's the kind of change that forces you to realize who you are and what drives you. It isn't scary when you realize how wonderful it can be. It's like walking outside to find the sun shining, a slight wind muttering the tree leaves. It's wonderdul, even when it's horrible.

Dear Self, Please don't panic. Stress is not a necissary part of your life. You will make friends, and do well in classes if you just stay focused. don't forgat to get involved early. Join clubs, find a job, and find a central place to study instead of staying in your room all the time. Cook your own food. Trust me: it will make you feel much healthier. You can do this. Love, Future You

My first two years at Evergreen were spent deconstructing my identity. I come from huge warm family reunions with tons of food and loud aunts and uncles. I come from the islands of Hawaii, Samoa, and Aotearoa. But I also come from mixed messages and confusing spaces and often allowed homophobia and anti-Indigenous mentalities to govern most of my decisions in my developing years. I grew up thinking I didn't have a voice, that there was path laid out before me I had no say on. Evergreen helped me to find that voice within myself: in deeply introspective seminars on identity, in studying how Christianized American colonization shaped many of the beliefs I once mistakenly took for my native peoples', and in learning to self-care and self-love. If I could go back in time to talk to myself as a high school senior, I would be sure to say something about scholarships and aid. I would try to mitigate the fears and intimidations that "adult life" often comes with. But I would also tell younger me to stand strong in his deeper sense of self--because I and many, many others are so proud of him.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock Holmes tells his partner John Watson, "You see, but you do not observe." Holmes criticizes Watson’s unquestioning view of the world. In contrast, Holmes analytically observes his environment to find clues and solve crimes. To my past self I’d offer this advice: Observe your environment every day, think about your relationship to it, then consider why what you’re observing has come to pass. Truthfully, you allow much of what you “see” to melt into the background of your consciousness. But you need not be a detective to pay attention or make a difference. The world needs your conscious consideration now more than ever. Go outside, take a walk, and look around. How are the people in your community? Are they healthy or homeless? Do they get enough to eat? What’s happening to the fields and forests around you? Have you noticed? What about the plastic in our oceans? Is there something you can do? Take a Sherlock Holmesian approach to life. Think about what you see through your own eyes—observe, analyze, and deduce—to help yourself, your peers, the environment, and the world.

Dear Dee, By this time you're set on going into the military to raise funds for school, which will be one of the best decisions you'll ever make. The world is big, very big Dee, and it's waiting for you to explore it; but take this warning to heart. We have come from humble beginnings: the worst neighborhoods in Oakland, murders and gun violence surrounding us, but we endured to rise above it all. College was always referred as a "way-out", and although it brough you our of misery and violence, the journey has only begun. College life is much like your experience in the military: you'll meet people from different countries, travel, challenge your perspective and gain new insights. When you leave the military, transfer that attitude while you study at Evergreen, and remember your humble beginnings. You'll transform from sailor to student; from ships to lecture halls, so continue to sail on through to your graduation.

Look up Evergreen State College and talk about it with the counselor. Don't worry about math, or science or history, because you won't have to deal with them there. The campus is amazing and you're going to love it there. Also, a mini fridge and microwave are a bit less optional then you think, at least for you. Trust me on that. There will be a fair amount of writing stuff, even in a theater class, so be prepared for that and don't let the internet eat up all your time.

I would assure myself that spending a year at community college does not make you a failure; it means you're collecting the monetary means to attend a 4 year university and pursue your dreams. I would also assure myself that graduating at 16 does not make you the "odd one out" or a "nerd." It gives you a little extra time to work towards your goals. Lastly, I would remind myself that without a strong academic background, all of your efforts in the theatrical arts will be for naught. An equitable division of your time is key this upcoming year.

You know some things, but you don't know everything. You are about to embark on one of the most intellectually and emotionally formative experiences of your life. I recently came across a research article about the role emotion plays in the degree to which our memories retain vivid detail; college is an experience you will never forget. Keep your mind open and work hard. I know that last year one of your teachers warned you, "Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out." In college, there is no way to prevent this from happening. Please remember that the real learning happens within the process of putting your fallen-out brains back together again. You'll leave completely new, with the philosophical training to ask questions no one else knew could be asked. You'll penetrate the hearts and minds of the most wooden personalities. Above all else, trust your intuition. Always. In high school you were told to ignore it. But in college you'll find that your intuition is your unique contribution to every project, interaction, gesture, and relationship. You'll learn the world wouldn't be the same without it. Nor without you.