Nightclubs to RISD

I often wonder how I survived not only my teenage years but also into my twenties before I finally applied myself and got accepted into RISD at age 24. Up until then I had been working nightclubs since age 17 and had moved from Canada to Ft. Lauderdale to be a “gentle” enforcer at a new club down there.

With my motorcycle in the back of my pickup truck, I stopped to apply at three universities on my way to Florida knowing full well that working nightclubs was not necessarily a career path. Two out of the three schools were for gaining access into the US military as an officer after graduation, and the third was completely out of character…a design school, an art school for which I had no portfolio!

Fast forward a year and I get a letter while working in that Florida nightclub indicating that I was accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design. They must’ve seen something in me that I didn’t know I possessed. I remember holding my own during the interview process, but I never expected to get in.