Hello there!
My name is Garrett Schulte, and I am a junior studying mechanical engineering at MIT. I'm originally from Florida, but don't let that alarm you. I'm not a "Florida Man." If you are curious as to what I mean, go to Google and type in "Florida Man." You'd be surprised what you'll find in those articles.
About my life at MIT, though: I'm not a straight mechanical engineer — I'm what we call a 2A major, or a flexible version of mechanical engineering. This means that I take slightly different mechanical engineering courses, as well as having to focus in a specific engineering discipline, such as robotics or design.
My focus is in bionics, which are basically robotic limbs that are used as prostheses. It's actually pretty awesome... but probably not something I currently want to discuss. I am known to get incredibly wordy when I explain things, and we don't want to bore anyone the first go around.
That is where the dilemma in my life arises, though. I've spent quite a bit of time with engineering. I rebuilt a 1965 Mustang in high school, I've done research in the biomechatronic lab in the Media Lab at MIT, I worked at an aeronautical contracting company last summer in Cape Canaveral, Florida and I've made it through roughly three years of engineering classes at MIT.
The best part, though? I've found it may not be what I want to do.
Yup. Pretty stellar. All the experience I've accumulated (which is not much at all when compared to other students here) has led me to realize that engineering might not necessarily be the best thing for me to do in my life. At least, not right out of the cannon that is college.
See, I'm an actor, as well. I was recently in MIT's production of "Small Infinities," but I've done a lot of other shows here (sophomore year I did two shows per semester). I have performed in "West Side Story" twice, but two summers ago I was able to do it professionally in my hometown. To add to that, I performed two monologues in front of roughly 2,000 people as a senior in high school. Even with all that experience, it has really only been within the last year that I have realized just how important performing is to me. It's caused a huge dilemma in my life, but one I'm happy to be having.
To document this dilemma, I started a vlog in January called WhatNext. You can find me on YouTube as WhatNext Vlog to see the seven videos before the one shown here. After that, however, you can find the proceeding videos here on Odyssey. The vlog documents my journey as I try to pursue acting as a career. I also document other components of my life, such as crazy experiences at MIT, trips and advice on how to handle certain things, but documenting my acting journey is the primary goal.
Odyssey is another platform for me to share this journey, as well as talk about other things that may be on my mind that don't require a video. We will see how it unfolds.
The vlog here has a little bit of an introduction to who I am, for any new Odyssey viewers, as well as another message about what I call "post-show depression." It isn't clinical, it's just describing the void that finds you after some event has come and gone in your life. It could be a play, a sport, a job, graduating college or high school... really anything. "Small Infinities" just closed up, so it was easy to grab on to that feeling. After all, I had the play in my life every day for multiple hours and then suddenly it was gone.
Anyways, in the video, I talk about this post-show depression and what I think is the best way to get past something like that. There is also some music in it, music that is not my own. All rights go to the respective artists, and the songs in order of appearance are as follows:
"Lone Harvest" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.ht...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
"Beach Disco" - Dougie Wood
"Funky Junky" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
"Vacation Uke" - Albis
"The Woods" - Silent Partner.
