Right From The Start | A PSU SERIES NOVELLA

One

"Wait before you go to bed– the Museum of Art is right down the road from you if you want to go! I love you and have a great first day tomorrow. Summer classes are easy but I'm proud of you. We start practice tomorrow so I won't be near my phone, if you need anything call Melissa."

I continued staring out my window as the mountains stared back at me through the setting sun. "Love you too Dad, thanks." When the line dropped, I tossed my phone on the bed and eyed the setting Pennsylvania sky once again.

I wasn't near the Philadelphia Museum of Art at all.

In fact, I was a good few hours away from it. I didn't have a city skyline. I didn't have crazy city traffic. That taxi didn't pick me up from the airport and I certainly didn't take a plane ride to Philadelphia. My eyes ran over to the "Welcome Penn Stater" sign on my wall.

He was going to kill me when he found out.

I graduated with honors. I worked so hard to become an overachiever and to please my father. He was pleased, but that was short-lived because he knew that the inevitable of me moving away to college was among us. Due to him being the head coach of The Ohio State University football team, any of his children would receive free education.

I would've rather eaten paint chips from my wall than go to Ohio State with my dad– or to be known as the coach's daughter. Most of all, I didn't want to be near him or my home. I needed to be away on my own. I needed a new start where I could be free.

I aspired to accomplish my own dreams and I had my own aspirations that were separate. Unfortunately, he was a helicopter parent, and since I couldn't afford college on my own, I needed his bank account to lean on. I had a small part-time job that he didn't know about but his girlfriend Melissa did. What I saved up with that money was the money that bought me the car that brought me here, and paid for the gas and the small amount of groceries that I was able to buy.

He made me a proposal: if I were to get into an Ivy League and to obtain more than half of the cost covered by scholarships, I could go. That was an offer I couldn't resist. I applied to every Ivy League in the nation.

Harvard? Rejected.
Brown? Rejected.
Princeton? Waitlisted.
The University of Pennsylvania? Accepted with a full ride.

But there was a catch. My dad desired for me to study something that I would be successful in. He didn't want me to follow my head or my heart– he wanted me to follow him and what he wanted.

I wanted to be an art teacher.
He wanted me to grow up to teach economics at Ohio State.

But this was a dream come true. I was so excited to go and taste freedom. I wanted to live the life that I had always wanted. It was everything I had ever wanted and more. My dad wanted me to succeed, but he never wanted me to prove him wrong. I don't think he expected me to be able to pull the acceptance with a full ride off, but I did.

The night I graduated from high school he took me out to dinner. I vividly remember looking up from my chicken parm to the television sitting across the room. On it was an advertisement for Penn State University. I didn't live under a rock, I knew what Penn State was. My dad often said that Penn State was the reason for causing his gray hairs to spout early.

However, I didn't know about Penn State from him telling me about it. I knew of Penn State because of the boy who hit me with a football, stole my hoodie, called me strings, and then I never saw him again.

I remember asking my dad what the difference was between the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University. He explained that one was in the Happy Valley and the other was in Philadelphia. He explained that Penn State wasn't an Ivy League– but it was one of the most competitive state schools out there with expensive living.