Culture-Defining Spaces: Geoffrey Frost, Twitter, and my College Decision

Another interviewee in the Roadtrip Nation textbook is particularly interesting to me. Geoffrey Frost, the Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Motorola, turned down his acceptance to Yale to travel Europe and pursue a career in advertising. I found his decision captivating because I have a brother who is a freshman at Yale and because I turned down a top-flight school, New York University, not against the wishes of my parents, but other relatives who felt like the value of Undergraduate education was more dependent the prestige of an institution than the niches that I could carve out. One of the many differences between Frost and I is that the consequences of his decision were far greater—his parents didn’t speak to him for two years and he was virtually on his own in Europe. The family side of my “lifestyle triangle” is of great importance, if I knew that my decision would hold that much gravity in my family life, I’m not sure I would have opted out of the acceptance process. I do however, admire his fearlessness and have a similar interest in science fiction and adventure. Instead of prompting me to drop out of school and travel, the adventure bug pushes me to explore new languages and places within the framework of being a college student, like travelling to Morocco in May and to Jordan in the summer of 2015 to develop my French and Arabic-speaking skills. I was also struck by his yearning to “work in the hot zones,” that is, playing to the zeitgeist and dabbling in culture-defining spaces. It reminded me of my passion for hip-hop and social media, and the excitement that social movements in my generation can generate. Ironically, my essay for NYU’s application was about my passion for Twitter and how it helped me connect with young people who cared about the same things I do. That hasn’t changed, and I think I will continue to seek “hot zones” and hone skills that allow me to thrive in them.