Undergraduate / Several Design School Admin Essay [3]

I've had a love for the visual arts for as long as I can remember. Growing up with a speech, language and non-specific learning disability has always made verbal communication a daily challenge. As a young child, it was difficult to verbalize my feelings and/or thoughts; I learned to speak in other ways. As early as age five, my moods were expressed through my own sense of style by insisting on dressing myself for school or reorganizing my room. Even as my verbal skills strengthened, I continued to express myself through some sort of art form like fashion or design.

My maternal grandmother was also a great artistic influence. She worked in one form of the field of art or another her entire life. Retired from hairdressing, she is now a 3-D art teacher for senior citizens. Early on, she started teaching me everything she knew and supporting my need for my own artistic expression.

Holidays were always an extra special time for my grandmother and I. We would spend hours decorating our houses. Each holiday my love for fashion collided with my passion to decorate. Eventually I realized my calling was to become an Interior Designer.

Having a learning disability has caused many struggles in my life, however it has also given me the ability to plan with a purpose of achieving my goals. At this point in my life my next step is setting to achieve on of the most important goals that will ultimately affect the rest of my life- my career in design.

I will utilize my creativity, strong work ethics and my ability to turn my attention to aesthetics in order to achieve this goal. My strengths, along with high level of education offered by attending Pratt Institute, I believe I can attain this goal and fulfill my dreams at the same time.