TKC for the TCK (a.k.a. the longest post ever!!)

Well…this could be an interesting post, although some of you may have known to be expecting it. I returned on Sunday from a weekend trip to New York.

The reason for this trip? To visit a college! Not just any college mind you, but The King’s College. Yeah yeah, so you’ve never heard of it. Most people haven’t. If you have heard of it, then I’m sure that you’ve heard some pretty cool stuff. I have talked about being a child of the corn in Cedarville, the Cedarville Bubble, and I’ve meant to write a post ranting and raving the dating at Cedarville and how everything about the school facilitates these bizarre mating rituals, but I just haven’t had the motivation or time. I’ve also written some pretty good stuff, like about that Steering Through Chaos book, that I never did write those promised posts on. The point is, I’ve had some pretty harsh words and opinions about Cedarville, but it’s really not all bad.

Ultimately, Cedarville is a pretty good school. I would recommend it to a lot of people, but it pretty much boils down to not being a great fit for me. Anyway, over Christmas break, when I was in Colorado, my family spent the day with some missionary friends of ours from back in our Zagreb days, the Honns (talk about a blast from the past, eh!). I was telling them about my corn issues and they told me about this school in New York where some friends of there’s had sent their daughter. I was impressed with what I heard, so when I got home I did what I always do when I’m curious about something, I googled it!

I was EXTREMELY impressed with everything I saw on their website. They about the most selective of Christian schools in America, but I decided to apply anyway. Then over Spring break, the email arrived. They actually did want me. [Bite me Wheaton!!! Ok, so maybe that wasn’t all that appropriate, and sorry if I went overboard with that, but it sure made me feel better…oh, and I’m not bitter either]

Anyway, this is getting long and I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. To make a long story short, the many many many obstacles that stood in my way were easily overcome to the point that I decided that a visit was in order.

My visit was pretty much amazing. When I first started looking at the school there were two things that got my attention. The obvious one was its location. This school is not just in New York. It’s in Manhattan. It’s not just in Manhattan, the campus is in the Empire State Building. I’m not kidding you. They have two lower floors, which are kind of in the basement, and they have space on the 15th floor.

Now when I began looking at the school, I thought this stuff sounded really neat but I figured that it was much to good to be true and it would not be a school that I’d want to attend. But as I was reading the website, I was amazed. The schools vision is to prepare Christians for National Leadership. Those of you who know me know that this is parallels the dream I have for my own life.

So I went to New York last Thursday to check it out. It was kind of cool because the school was hosting a weekend program, called Airlift, for high school juniors and seniors to come visit, so there was a lot going on while I was there. I came a day early so that I could visit a class. That first night I stayed with students. A student picked me up at the airport. We took my stuff to the apartment I’d be staying in, and then he took me, literally around the corner, to the Korean district where I had the most amazing fried rice. This guy was really cool. He made me feel very comfortable and I was able to ask him all kinds of questions, and he was just fun. He was the kind of guy I could see myself being friends with. That was refreshing seeing as I have ZERO guy friends here.

He took me back to the apartment. That’s what the housing is. TKC has some apartments within nearby apartment buildings. The girls stay in the Herald Towers, which is on the same block, and the guys stay in the Vogue, which is like a block away. The apartment is very small, it is New York City after all. There is one bedroom, which houses 4 girls (in 2 sets of bunk beds). There is a bathroom, a full kitchen, and a nice size living room. I am a bit concerned about living with 3 other girls in such a small space, but it is New York, and there will be more places for them to go and more places for me to escape to. What’s really cool about the apartment I stayed in, it overlooks Macy’s (the Macy’s!) and the girls who live there watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade from their window!!

The girls I stayed with were really nice. It was a potentially awkward situation, but fortunately it really wasn’t bad. I did go and visit a class. It was really cool. All of the classes are very small, 6-20 students maybe, so most things are discussion-based.

So much more happened over the weekend. The admissions people and people working with Airlift were amazing. They made time to talk specifically to me, seeing as my situation was different from the other students present, because I’m already in college. The school is giving me an insane about of financial aid so that it will be cheaper for me to go to an amazing school in Manhattan than for me to go to a school that clashes with my personality in a cornfield. Sounds kind of sick and wrong to me, but I’m not complaining.

The school only has about 280 students this year. They increase by about 50% every year and their ultimate target number is 2000 students. The students I spoke to told me that it’s a very close community. Every student is a member of a “house” which is based on the sorority/fraternity system. Apparently everyone really likes this, and they said that it gives you like a family in school, and it makes the city not seem quite so big.

Wow, this is really long, but I really couldn’t just write a short post on this. Before going to New York I was so torn about what I was going to do. Should I stay in Cedarville or go to New York? When I was visiting, there was little doubt (ok, maybe just a little) that The King’s College had pretty much been created with me in mind. The bottom line…I’m moving to New York!!

There are countless benefits here. I’ll have career opportunities that I was never going to get here. I mean yeah, Chuck’s is training me to be a student manager, but honestly now, I could potentially get an internship in a law firm or an embassy or anywhere in New York! EVERYTHING is in New York!

Ok Yeah, I need to finish this. It’s so long. Over 2 pages on my word processor… I will know who really cares by the faithful who have read this far =)