Since I was little, I've always assumed I would apply to KU. It's just one of those things you do, you know – go to school, eat your vegetables, say please and thank you, apply to KU.</p><p>Some of my best friends will go to KU for a million different reasons, they'll be happy there, and it's the right choice for them. I love the Jayhawks. Always have, always will. I'm proud to say I'm a KU fan.</p><p>But I don't want to go there.</p><p>I want to get away (preferably to California). See new places. Experience a different lifestyle. And I know myself well enough to know that my life wouldn't change if I went to school in Lawrence. The majority of my friends would be the same people I've known since freshman year, since seventh grade, maybe even since elementary school.</p><p>And many people love KU for exactly that reason: they want comforting familiarity. But that familiarity is what I want to escape. I love it here, but I'm restless. I crave change the way some people crave caffeine.</p><p>So today, I was proactive.</p><p>I emailed my KU adviser and told her I wasn't applying. She's spent hours calling, emailing and sending letters to me, encouraging me to apply, giving me KU carabiners and origami Jayhawks and priority applications, and I felt genuinely bad to turn her down.</p><p>But at the same time, a huge weight's just been lifted off my chest.</p><p>Upcoming deadlines: Nov. 30: Cal Poly (already submitted) Dec. 1: Maryland (a few blurbs away from finished) Dec. 10: USC!!!!</p><p>Accepted: UNL Submitted, unknown: UNC-Chapel Hill, Cal Poly, UNL honors program Still to come: USC, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Maryland, American Still up in the air: UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UC Davis (more on that later)