Gidget.
The 1954 movie, starring Sandra Dee is the reason I am at USC. Ok, well not entirely…but I’d say 60%. It is one of the top reasons I applied..I’ll explain in due time.
When I applied to USC, as a little girl from a smallish town in Indiana, I never dreamed of actually going here. When I was very young, my aunt showed me the movie Gidget. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now, and then come back….1.5 hours later…I’m serious you need to see it…It is about a teenage girl who learns to surf like the boys and inevitably falls in love with a very cute surfer, played by James Darren who is very attractive if I must say so myself. Since that ripe young age of seven, I have wanted to be Gidget. I wanted to go to California and I wanted to surf. I saved up every single dime and penny to go to surf camp, but my parents would never let me go, and obviously they wouldn’t allow me to buy a surf board, although I did try on a couple of occasions. I like to joke with them that they are now paying for attempting to ruin my childhood dream. (They don’t find it that funny…)
Therefore I applied to USC. I knew one boy that went to the cinema school, but most kids from my high school stayed relatively close to home after high school. I thought I would do the same, as I applied to eleven different school, USC being the only one west of the Mississippi! I applied extremely close to the deadline and thought, well at least I’ll get the USC letter head.
Then I got accepted. Acceptance meant, in my head, a free trip to California. I mean I had to visit right? Right. So my mom and I ventured off to the unknown on that April Day in my senior year, and we fell in love with USC, and there was no turning back.
I love LA. I love USC. I love this city, the weather, the people I’ve met, the traditions of this school, the sports, the food, the culture, the atmosphere…I really love being a part of this ‘place.’ I felt completely welcome when I visited. I loved the school colors (obviously a big part of my decision…) and spirit, and that the band played at lunch. I really felt like USC wanted me to be here and wanted me to be happy. I specifically felt very welcomed at Viterbi and everywhere I went someone had a smile on his or her face and were genuinely interested in me. As you probably often hear, it just felt right, and I will never doubt the decision I made.
To quote my friend Carly Blaine, a high school senior, “You can be happy wherever you go. You make happiness.” I truly believe you get out of college what you put into it. I really think I could have been happy in a lot of different cities at a bunch of different places, but I can honestly say that I think I made the best decision and I am the happiest here at the University of Southern California. I don’t think I can say it better than Carey McWilliams in his book Southern California: An Island on the Land,
“Then it suddenly occurred to me that, in all the world, there neither was nor would there ever be another place like this City of the Angels. Here the American people were erupting, like lava from a volcano; here, indeed was the place for me—a ringside seat at the circus.” I just like to think I’m not watching the circus. I’m the ringleader. =)
Watching: Sherlock Holmes Easter Present =)
Listening to: Sublime!!!! (I hear they’re headlining Springfest?!?! is this true????)
Reading: In Style…I’m obsessed with Rachel Zoe…
☮♥ =) arianna
p.s. Happy Easter….Happy Passover…Christos Voskrese (Serbian for Happy Easter!)
I’ve met Gidget. So random. I’ve never heard of another person my age who knew who she was.
SoCal would have been a great place to have gone to college but unfortunately I ended up in Ithaca New York which is worlds away from SoCal. Glad to hear that you’re living your dream.