Mark

My name is Mark Martin, and I was born on June 01, 1993. I share a birthday with Heidi Klum and Marilyn Monroe (FUN FACT). I’m interested in a lot of different things including music, fashion, art history, and French. My favorite bands are The Smiths, Joy Division, Best Coast, Beach House, Crystal Castles, Wavves, The Pretty Reckless, Little Dragon, and a lot more. Some of my favorite designers are Alexander Wang, Miuccia Prada, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, and Jil Sander.

I came to Chicago from a town southwest of here in Ottawa, Illinois. The population there is around 20,000 people. It’s pretty small and I felt like I had to move as soon as possible. I attended private school from K-6^th grade and then moved on to public school. It wasn’t one of the best decisions I made, considering the education level was at an all time low.

During the first years of high school, I didn’t really attempt to do my best because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, and I wasn’t concerned about the future at that point. Freshman and sophomore years were probably the worst of the three; three meaning I was homeschooled during my junior year. My senior year is when reality set in, and I realized I had to do something with my life because I knew I had more potential than others around me. I didn’t want to become a statistic and just stay in that small town and have a job that wasn’t considered a career.

I started thinking about the things that I believed I excelled in, and that I was most interested in, because who would want to go study something they wanted nothing to do with? So, I decided I was going to go to college and become a fashion merchandising major, and hopefully become a buyer or personal stylist in the future. Considering I am from a smaller town, and it would be my first transition into a city and away from home, my parents and I decided that Chicago would be the best bet for now.

I looked into different schools around the city, but none of them really had my name on them, until I found Columbia. For me, I want to minor in public relations, and Columbia offers that along with my major. So, now here I am hopefully going to become an enrolled student in the fall semester after completing the bridge program.