Cool Cat's Portfolio

“Having been deeply encumbered by marrying, getting a cottage, and buying the furniture which had disappeared in the wake of his wife, he had never been able to save any money since the time of those disastrous ventures” (Hardy 71).

So I’ve never been tricked into marriage… or had all my possessions stolen after a messy breakup… But a relationship has tried to distract me from my college dreams, just as Arabella distracted Jude.

My senior year in high school, my English teacher warned us all to break up with our boyfriends or girlfriends before heading to college. She didn’t really explain herself, but I imagined she meant they’d hold us back or prevent us from leaving our comfort zone. I wish I’d heeded her warning.

I dated the same guy for nearly three years, from high school into my sophomore year of college. Everything was cool and relaxed until I started looking at colleges I’d want to attend. I’d stayed in Houston for my freshman year of college, so we hadn’t hit any bumps in the road… yet. Basically, once I started looking at colleges outside of the Houston area, things started to go downhill. Two years dating and we’d never fought, but as soon as I turned my application into UT, we never stopped. There were all these different excuses—and not to mention he hated my major. He’d tell me literature was useless. I was turning a hobby into a career. I’d make no money and live off of someone else the rest of my life. I completely understand the way Jude felt when Arabella grabbed his books with her greasy pig hands and threw them to the floor, “I won’t have them books in the way!” (57).

Needless to say, there was a big break up a few months before I moved to Austin. I didn’t like the way he degraded my major or handled my choice in colleges. There was a reason I left these three years of my life out of my roadmap. I’d rather not think or talk about it. But I love living in Austin on my own with no obligations to a relationship. It means I’m able to study what I’m passionate about without having to defend myself every week.