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I have always had a habit of doing whatever I found most interesting. The only way I know to approach the world is with childlike interest and bright eyed enthusiasm; exploring with my own two hands, and letting myself be led into the fray by my heart.
When I was applying for college, I was given the CCS brochure by one of my high school teachers. It wasn't my Physics or Programming teacher, but an Art teacher. I never took a single Art class in high school, but I did have a habit of skipping English class to work on lithography and skipping PE to work on theater lighting design. This Art teacher had been sending his students to CCS for decades, and it occurred to him that CCS might work out well for me.
It did. I spent four years testing my limits, as well as the limits of what CCS could offer. It was exactly the sort of experience that wouldn't have been possible, or would have been frowned upon in a traditional program. In the end, what I learned was that:
1) a person can do almost anything, if they approach the problem right.
2) the answer to doing this is almost always to approach it with creativity, simplicity, and passion.
3) there are a lot more similarities among different disciplines and the people who do them, than there is difference between them.
4) the world is full of a lot of hand waving and big egos trying to confuse the first 3 points.
Since I have gotten out in the real world, I have been lucky to work with some of the best people anywhere in the world. I am glad to see that CCS, if rare, isn't an isolated event.
CCS enshrined in me the confidence to believe that I may just be on the right track, it preserved my natural impulse to go ahead and try, and it nurtured the skills to help me see the way. These are the fundamental things that are required to successfully pursue any goal in life.
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