How I got here- and essay by Donovan Redd I have always been an existentially-oriented individual; I think a lot about my purpose on earth; this, coupled with my morals and values is my framework for living that autonomizes my actions. One of the tenets of my mindset is to get as much out of this one life as possible, to gather skills, knowledge, and go through physical and mental rigor. In return, I sustain something adjacent to “meaning” in life. Some of the skills I have currently include meditation, weight lifting, reading, writing, and making music; but most of all, In high school a lot of people knew me as “the kid who could make art”. I was voted most artistic in my senior yearbook, my senior project was a 36” x 48” painting, and I spent countless hours regimenting my practice since seventh grade. I drew complex fractals, geometric patterns, spirit figures, religious symbology, human anatomy, etc. I called this era of my art “psychic landscapes” - The visual view of intangible, insensate feelings only perceptible by emotion and thoughts. Eventually, I realized that while I was studying art, I was also in a way studying psychology, this feeling advanced while I was attending University of the Arts in winter 2021. It was then I decided that the most versatile interdisciplinary practice I could study is psychology. Crushed under the weight of my realization, I felt as though attending University of the Arts was a five-figure financial mistake. I felt like I was wasting time at UArts knowing psychology was my true vocation, however, art is what led me to my career path, so it was really just a stepping stone in the journey. At this point I was 18, unemployed, in Center City Philadelphia, a mercurial art student living off of spinach and canned tuna, putting all my effort into school and essentially waiting for my future. I had a renewed sense of wellness when I approached making art from a psychological perspective. I art-therapized myself, my art was informed by the state of my own mind and people around me and integrated it into art. I believe my calling is to learn ins and outs of the mind, the way people interact, why we do what we do, if I were to secure a job in the psychology field. Knowing I would need to change schools, I sought a university with a diversified breadth of education, so I am transferring to Temple. I foresee that my career aspirations will wean, deviate, evolve, and adapt from my current mental archetype, as they should, and Temple’s wide array of courses will help in unexpected ways, i.e. relating botany to psychology, or history to geology. Though I am “decided” in the major of psychology, I'm feeling safe going to a school with a wide range of studies should my prospective career change. I value education because I believe knowledge and enriching experiences are the path to virtue, being informed and compassionate are tenets of human excellence, and college education is most effective with this mindset. The knowledge I have garnered and will garner in this lifetime aggregate into this great “understanding” which I believe is, in its most rudimentary form, my purpose. I personally feel that going to college simply to secure a higher-paying job is asinine, I go to college to learn. While in college, whether or not it is intended to build up career credentials, there is one thing in a critical stage of construction; myself, and I know I must build it well.