Rough Draft

The University of Illinois Fantasy

In the beginning…

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” My dad said, his face full of excitement. Being only 12, any kind of surprise from my father was compelling.

“What is it? What is it?” I shrieked with delight.

“We’re going to take a little drive down to one of the best places in the world; The University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.” He exclaimed with a dreamy look in his eyes.

This was how it all started, the ‘University of Illinois fantasy’. Every parent wants their children to get the best education possible and for them to be the best that they can be. In a lot of situations parents have a school that they dream their kid could get into, obviously in my case that was U of I. I would assume that once it became clear to some parents that their kid’s GPA, ACT or SAT scores just aren’t good enough to get them into that dream school, they would come to terms with reality and would adapt their ideas of a dream school to something more realistic. Unfortunately this was not the case in my family.

History Lesson

It started with the pizza, Papa Dell’s pizza. Every pizza we would have now he would compare to Papa Dell’s, the pizza he would have at the U of I. My dad had lived in an apartment above Papa Dell’s while attending college in Champaign. He would always tell me stories about how he and his roommates would have the pizza delivered, despite being only a flight of stairs away. I thought this was hilarious and brilliant, and I still do because if I were him I would do the same thing. Stories like these are what made U of I my new dream school.

High School Blues

As high school progressed, reality set in, with me that is, that acceptance to the University of Illinois was slightly out of reach. It wasn’t that I was getting bad grades; they just weren’t U of I material. The truth was, as I got older and realized that there were actually other colleges out there other than the University of Illinois that I would rather go to, I let the dream of going there slip away. Unfortunately, my dad held fast to this fantasy, and in his mind, there are no other colleges that would be good enough for me out there. It’s either go to University of Illinois or go to a community college for a year or so then transfer into U of I, like what he did back in 1971.

Obviously, being a high school senior, those are not my plans. I’m applying to, and will end up going to the school I want to, and it’s not going to be U of I. Sorry Dad.

Overall…

We went for the pizza. My dad raved about the pizza. I had heard so many stories about that pizza. But when we finally got there my nose was too stuffed up, and I never even got to taste it. This ‘famous’ pizza was at Papa Dell’s on campus at the University of Illinois at Champaign – Urbana, my dad’s alma mater.

Probably ever since I was born it was my dad’s dream for me to go to the University of Illinois. He had enrolled there in 1971 after transferring from Chicago City College, with only a 19 on his ACT. He went there to be with his friends, not for the academic, and ended up having the time of his life. He is still best friends with the people he had met there and I know he wants the same thing for me.

Things are much different than they were in 1971. If you tried to get into the University of Illinois with a 19 on your ACT, I’m assuming the admission staff would throw back their head and laugh at you and your feeble attempt for acceptance. Not that I got a 19 on my ACT, a 27 actually, but a 27 is still sub-par when trying to get accepted into the best public school in the state of Illinois. So, despite my dad’s dream and my hard, but not hard enough, work, I still won’t be able to get into the University of Illinois.