Plot Twist
So I flew home to Minnesota on Saturday. I’m here till Sunday the 21st. Spring break woo show us yer tits!
But this comic isn’t just about spring break. Today I am going to share The News. (To which I alluded.)
I’m taking a gap year. I have deferred my enrollment at CCS. Technically, it’s not a deferment. They’re too competitive a program to promise a spot that far into the future, so instead, they will reevaluate my portfolio next year, possibly ask for additional materials, and then…we’ll see.
In the meantime, I will be living in Northfield with my folks, working a job or two, and devoting my spare time to comics. We’re even moving my bedroom down to where my dad’s office was, so that we can all have a little more privacy. Some people might balk at the thought of moving back in with the folks. I’m not unfamiliar with that. Though I am eternally grateful for having the parents I have, the idea of moving back home still makes me uneasy, and heightens all my usual fears about whether I will ever grow up/get a real job/find a cool dude to make out with.
I know that after all my gushing about CCS, this news may come as a surprise. How best to explain?
Part of me got a little weirded out by the high concentration of Hampshire grads who end up there. It’s sort of cool, but also sort of worrisome, given that at this point I am OH SO DONE with the Hampshire bubble. What if the students and professors there make me feel shitty about my work/personality in the way certain Hampshire students and professors have done??? Over the past few months, I have devoted many a sleepless night to this (perhaps irrational) question.
Part of me just wants to come home. I love Minnesota. You know this. And I love the friends and family I have here. The Twin Cities are where I picture myself settling down and really doing things. As long as I’m far away, there are all these important parts of my life that get put on hold. I would never invest in, say, a nice scanner, or a drafting table, or a heavy stack of comic books, because I know it’ll just be a pain when I have to pack up and fly across the country. I don’t like living that way. Maybe after a year at home, I’ll be ready to fling myself to the winds again, but right now I’m just not feeling it. And after giving Massachusetts four years of my life, I kinda hate the East Coast (though I probably just hate hipsters and self-righteous assholes).
But of course, above all, money money money. Right now, I simply can’t afford CCS. After a year of working and saving, that may change. Plus, I will apply for more grants and scholarships that I didn’t find out about this year until it was already too late. I think I will also apply to the MFA programs at MCAD (it turns out that MCAD has a Comic Art MFA program??) and the U of M, just…to think about some other possibilities.
I still feel kind of down right now. Especially since it looks like Goldfeather’s gonna make the leap to NYC. She is pretty much the love of my life, and I feel sad that we couldn’t settle on a city that would keep us closer together. But she’ll see me whenever she wants to visit home, and I’ll see her whenever I want to visit grand ol’ New York. This means our paths will probably cross more often than if we’d picked, say, White River Junction and Asheville (those were our plans as of like two months ago).
Just in case you’re all thinking “Wow, this chick is a big scaredy cat loser,” let me direct you to a bunch of recent articles suggesting that, if I am a loser, I am at least part of a large loser trend: this New York Times article says grads are moving back home because they’re super picky about jobs, this USA Today article is called “Why Grown Kids Come Home,” this article says that 60% of grads move back home after graduation, while this article suggests it’s as high as 80%.
2 ½ months till Hampshire’s commencement ceremony. Whew.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
You could find other articles about kids being douchebags and going to grad school when that’s not even what they need or want to be doing right away.
I definitely feel the whole sense that this is not a real place and that life starts somewhere else; it’s no good! As for these kids turning down jobs, that’s kind of heartening because that would be killing the competition for my Target/ Netflix call center aspirations.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Also, I’m a little frightened that there is now a tremendous sheer cliff to the west and south of Minnesota.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
I love this comic. I love Minnesota. I love that someone else may move back to Northfield after graduation.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
I agree with Alison, except replace the last I love with “I am jealous”…New York is scary and I don’t have a job. And I don’t like that visiting each other won’t be as easy as walking 5 blocks, or driving 2.5 hours, or taking a 10 hour Eurorail train…BAH!! We can make it work. I don’t have a living situation yet either, but damnit we can sleep head to toe on a curbside mattress (WITH a stain) if it means we can spend time together.
But I am so glad that you are happy with your plan, Athena. You know what you want right now, and you’re doing it. Not everyone can say that.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
my plans to move away from minnesota forever were ruined and now i’m going to live in northfield briefly after i graduate and then move to minneapolis in the fall which is basically the same as living with my parents.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
This comic is really working for me. Awesome style, awesome content. And do you know what ELSE is awesome?!? The fact that you living at home will mean you’ll see ME over fall/thanksgiving/winter/spring breaks! HOORAY!
March 8th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
ATHENA, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR FUTURE! You are such a web/comics/writing guru that if you don’t get a job/become successful no one I know will. I am quite surprised to hear that you are coming here, but I am SO EXCITED that you will be around. I am going to the U of M for grad school next year, so I will be here too. Also, I love your rocket pack, if only we could all have one.
-William
P.S. Scott Pilgrim film=potentially awesome
P.P.S. This summer I will looking for a place to live/roomates for next school year/possibly middle summer. It sounds like you want to go home, but if you decided to be in the cities (for a job?) maybe it could work? Just a thought.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
I may be a little biased since I will be not so far away in the cities, but I say: Right On.
Also, great drawing.
(And: fuck the haters.)
March 9th, 2010 at 12:15 am
This made me smile.
March 9th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Hey Athena –
This article says that the college class of 2010 is screwed over big time:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/how-a-new-jobless-era-will-transform-america/7919/?utm_source=headgrabs&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20100213
Maybe you could do a comic series on who’s to blame for you and your friends’ crappy prospects. It would probably much appreciated.
Tabitha -
Yeah, that cliff is frightening. Be careful going to Iowa or the Dakotas.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
That’s like a cover waiting to happen!
See you soon!
March 9th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Glad to have you back in Minn for a while! We changed our venue from Cosmic’s to Cahoots coffee shop just around the corner from O’Gara’s. Hope to see you next week at the jam!
March 10th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Shit, this comic has gotten a lot of responses.
Living with William would be sweet.
March 10th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Tabitha: Yeah, the idea of being in another tiny academic bubble makes me nervous. If it was a school in a city, that would be less of a concern. Thus the looking into MCAD. Still, it seems dumb to postpone future job plans just to spend a year “soul searching” or “interacting with regular people” or some other higher educated upperclass nonsense idea. I dunno. I DUNNO. Gahhh guess I’ll move home with ma and pa. ‘Cause THAT’S responsible.
Alison: Oh yay! It would be great if you were around! And it’s great to know that I’m not alone in the moving-back-home idea.
Goldfeather: I sure do hope we live closer together at SOME point in the future. I still feel so uncertain about my plans… Money has become such a huge, huge factor. It’s like senior year when I was all “OMG I GOT INTO TISCH!!!” for like a week and then reality sunk in as I realized there was absolutely NO WAY I could pay for it. Of the six schools I applied to, Hampshire was the only one that both accepted me and offered me enough financial aid. So…here I am. And now the college thing’s almost over so…back home I go. It’s not that Hampshire was a bad school, nor is moving home a bad option for now, but I just hate it that it feels like money was the determining factor.
kingsamj: SPEAKING OF MONEY, what are doing moving back home??? You’ve built yourself a decent nest egg, right? And you have seriously marketable job skills, right? I am baffled by this turn of events!
Phoebe: Hooray, I’m glad you like the comic! And I’m SO glad I’ll be seeing you soon! I have season 3 of Big Love waiting for you.
William: Oh man, thank you so much for all those kind words! Right now I feel like I just wasted four years of my life and don’t have a single useful marketable skill to show for it. But I’m excited to hear that you’ve picked a school and REALLY, REALLY, REALLY excited to hear that you’re staying in the cities! I think I’m committed to living at home for at least awhile (I’ve already been applying to jobs), but keep me in mind in case some roommate leaves you halfway through next year or something. I wonder what kind of housemates we would be??? WEIRD.
Ian: Thank you!! Yeah, I definitely intend to visit you guys next year. Conversations in your living room are like an antidote to haters.
Ben: GOOD. I hope that means you’re committed to living in Minneapolis next year.
Dad: Oh my GOD, thanks for alerting me to one of the most depressing articles of all time! Jesus CHRIST, I want to just give up and kill myself now! If I do, I will be citing that article in my suicide note.
Danno: Oh man, if I do a collection of Minnesota-related comics, I should totally turn this into a cover! And yeah, I’ll see you if you go to the next St Paul jam!
Jon: Thanks! It’s good to be back. I hope Cahoots has been a nice change.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
YES FUCK HATERS INDEED I LOVE MINNESOTA YAAAAAAAAAAY NORTHFIELD
March 14th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
also this comic is faaaaaaaaaaaantastic
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:51 pm
YAY! Thank you! And DEAR LORD there are too many haters here.