As we grow older and progress from the days of nap time and color books of kindergarten to the football games and school dances of high school we undoubtedly change a great deal. We change how we dress, what we like, and even who we are friends with, but through all this turnover there is one persistent question that remains, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. I have always dreaded being asked this question partially because it is such an infinitely complex question that requires such a rudimentary answer but also because I have never truly realized what I wanted to be when I had ceased to grow. This was none more apparent than in my first month of kindergarten. It was about an hour towards the end of the school day when we were asked to answer the seemingly straightforward question. As the other children scribbled down their answers with haste I sat there pondering the inquiry. The bell rang and I shoved the paper in my backpack and ran out of the classroom to get on the school bus. At home I contemplated the question for a while longer before finishing the prompt, “When I am older I want to be . . .” with one simple word: long. No, I did not want to be long, I wanted to belong. It was what I truly wanted then and what I still want to be to this day. …show more content…
I have the perspective of being somewhere where I do not quite belong. I have the feeling of constant mental displacement, the pestering feeling that no matter what I am doing or no matter how happy I am, I am still in the wrong place. The good news and the motivation I have is that I know where the right place is. Home for me is on the shore of lake Mendota at the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My visits to the campus and experiences I had while there have assured me of this. My home is in Madison Wisconsin, that is where I truly