In light of the highly publicized controversy of the Florida teenager, who yearned to go to the University of Arkansas on a football scholarship, and of his mother, who ran away with his signing papers because she wanted him to stay close to home; I’d like to address the questions that occurred to me. How much influence do your parents have on your plans for your future? And how independent are you in your decisions?

I personally want to stay close to my family, but not knowing where I will attend school doesn’t bother me. I will apply to every place that will accept me and hope that someone will give me butt-tons of money to be graced with my brains. But I also hope for somewhere at least in the South, so if I royally screw up, which is indicative of my past actions, I have a place to fall back on.

I hate to break my dearest mother’s heart, but I find that other schools, other than the convenient, fit me better. If I were offered a scholarship to any of these other schools, I would accept in a New York minute!

Though my mother will be the hardest thing to say “Good bye” to when leaving home, I know that it’s a natural part of life. As much as I would love to go to the U of A to study journalism and always have a home down the road to grab a bowl of her “Two-Timing Pasta” and an available and washer and dryer, I know that the U of A can not offer me what other schools can.

My future comes ahead of my past. I would love to coddled by my mother all day, every day. But I know that to grow up, and be able to coddle and care for my own children one day, I must first learn to take care of myself. So while my parents influence me to stay in the South, I will go to wherever the best opportunity to better myself is.