The decision to study at CU Denver was not an easy one for me, and as the subtitle suggests, it came down to picking my second-best option. I started my college education at Aims Community College in Greeley, CO, and graduated with an interest in 2D animation. I started to look at schools nearby that had 2D programs, only to find minimal options. One option that stood out was RMCAD, or Rocky Mountain School of Art and Design. I had to go through different people and get opinions about this school, and due to its high costs, I decided to pass. This decision brought me to spend more time looking into CU Denver and its Digital Design program.

I have always been someone who loved to make video edits – someone who sat down during commercials and said “wow, the way they animated the text,” or “the way they used transitions” was incredible! This passion for motion design was contested for my love of 2D animation during community college, but CU Denver became a way to reconnect to my formal self. This helped me make the decision to attend in the fall of 2022.

I remember graduating from high school and being frustrated that there were never any motion design programs in colleges. This frustration has not passed unfortunately. While CU Denver has motion courses, classmates have told me that – due to my advanced history with After Effects and editing software – I would not learn much in these courses. Good for me, because I already had transfer credits for the motion courses from community college. There is one motion course here that I am trying to take. Unfortunately, it was cancelled this semester (Fall 2023), but I am hoping to take it when it runs.

Despite the lack of motion work in my courses, I don’t see my work in this degree as pointless. While it can be frustrating, sometimes I learn incredibly useful information such as typography and InDesign – things I would have never paid attention to. Better yet, some professors here are incredibly open to working with students like me when it comes to modifying project deliverables to encourage my motion pursuits. With this, I can get the best of both worlds: learning fundamental tools and practices of design while occasionally reuniting with my interest. I will be honest, this pathway is not always what I expected, and sometimes I am disappointed, but I feel as though I have not explored enough to be able to lable its value to myself as an artist, creator, and designer.