Jenny’s School
Table of contents for 2009 Review
2009 was a watershed year for the three Kimball kids and their educations. All three of us started new schools in Chicagoland and began to taste the commuter lifestyle a bit more.
After being accepted to every art school she applied to, Jenny decided to attend Columbia College downtown. Honestly, I was a bit surprised and mystified by her decision. She had spent a significant amount of time apply for and being accepted into fine arts schools, including the School of the Art Institute at Chicago, apparently one of the best art schools in the nation. Columbia on the other hand, had open admissions. Literally everyone is accepted.
Nor is it particularly cheap, or is there any of those normal childish reasons for wanting to go. None of Jenny’s friends were attending, she didn’t have a particular fascination with downtown Chicago and certainly didn’t feel a need to stay close to the family.
Then she chose video game design as her major, despite not being half as interested in them as Jon or me. Besides not being an avid video game player, she didn’t take an interest in video game culture, history, or industry. We had a lot of dinner table conversations where I was unable to ascertain the reason she chose video games. Honestly, I thought it was all a big mistake that she’d end up paying for with her youth and my dad his money.
But I became impressed with the classes she was taking. One of her first classes was C++, which upon her successful completion, means that she has more programming training than me. Another class was Chinese, which is something I’ve been trying to get my siblings to study for a long time.
So I slowly changed my mind about her decision, instead of lamenting her (probably unemployable) degree, I found myself proud of the classes she took. Now she has a taste of the development challenges Jon and I run into every day, and an inkling of her Chinese roots.
In the end, it seems like her degree in video game design might actually bring us closer, and it is nice that she’s still at home.