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Ms. Rodgers
Eng. 101
March 12, 2009
I Should Know.

Dear Rachel,
with high school slipping out of your grasp I'm sure you cannot wait to hit the ground running with your college experience. Your life is ahead of you and you’re probably more than ready to take that first step into adulthood and get going. It's an experience I sadly missed out on my first year and see no reason for you to be missing that part of your adolescents. The diverse culture, unique exposure to the real world, and the ability to test yourself are all reasons you should venture out into the world and spend your first year of college abroad.

Imagine; People from all over the country all striving for a higher education with you! A diverse culture of people that cannot be found at a community college. Community Colleges are notorious for having students that are within a certain radius of the school. If you take a look at the list of students going here to St. Charles Community College in Francis Howell after graduation more than half of my eight hundred student class ended up at these doors. The same people moving on with you like they have since when you learned to read? Patricia Gurin, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan suggests that diversity in the student body is a good thing, “Students come to universities at a critical stage of their development--a time during which they define themselves in relation to others and experiment with different social roles before making permanent commitments to occupations, social groups, and intimate personal relationships. In addition, for many students college is the first sustained exposure to an environment other than their home communities." Wouldn't it be inspiring to meet someone outside of our little bubble out here in St. Charles? Someone who knows and does something totally different then what we deem normal? I know how much you crave adventure. This is the next best thing to traveling the world minus all the money. Ms. Gurin also states that, “the results of these original analyses are compelling. There is a consistent pattern of positive relationships between diversity in higher education and both learning and democracy outcomes. This pattern holds across racial and ethnic groups and across a broad range of outcomes. Indeed, the benefits of diversity are evident at the national level after four years of college, and five years after leaving college."

High School: The land of dependence. You’re dependent on your parents and their home and their utter love of you to make you feel like getting up in the morning. Knowing you, you do have a job and you work on weekends to make some extra spending dough, really think about how much you lean on your parents. The facts of the real world are horrible! Nothing is curtain in your world but death and taxes after high school correct? Wrong! Think of the satisfaction you get from that little petty amount of spending money you earn, now double that to the idea of a small two room flat. A place to call your own that you bought with your own money? College can allow you to break the strings of attachment to your parents! Drink from the milk cartoon and have ice cream for breakfast so to speak. Being away from your parents will allow you to grow independent and learn more about what you are capable as an individual. Jeffrey Arnett, associate professor at University of Missouri and author of Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens through Early Twenties ,Arnett describes the period between college and adulthood as, "a self- focused stage where people have the freedom to focus on their own development." Notice he calls this period of stage in development and not just a transition between two stages. It is important for you to develop as an individual without your parents over your shoulder twenty-four seven.
Lastly, wouldn’t you like to become a unique identity unto yourself? Knowing you you’ve probably already thought about all the radical things you could do but never take the steps to do them because you are worried on what your parents will say to you. What your family will scorn you as if you take a step out of bounds. The complex social experience of learning, reveals how culture, gender, race, and other societal factors shape and mold an individual's identity and ability to function in relationships which are the basis of all learning, would be better shaped on your own independently. Without a guiding hand to show you what is right and wrong in your new adult life.
Rachel, you’ve always been a very open minded and increasingly incredible person. I would feel horrible to see that spirit crushed in an institution without allowing you to venture forth on your own. To grow and challenge you with something new and exciting, besides being forced to return to an educational background that is lacking in freedoms. College away from home will only hone what you already know about yourself as well as bring things you had no idea you were capable into light. The time spend away from home will not only cause you to be more tolerant of different people and their cultures, but also learn about the real world and its pressures while finding yourself. Hopefully these insights as well as and questions you have for me personally will help you with your decision.
- All my Love