Garrett Schulte

Right now I am a junior studying mechanical engineering at MIT, and the focus of my major is in bionics and robotics. When I first came to MIT, I wanted to be an astronautical engineer. I had these huge dreams of helping send humanity to other planets, even planets in other solar systems, and I felt like MIT was the place to achieve that goal. In my second semester, those dreams were severely diminished when a professor lectured that we were no closer to human space travel than we were in the 60's. I moved on to my other passion, people, and found myself attracted to videos of people hearing for the first time or using an arm again via prosthetic after being injured in an accident. I figured that was the thing I was called to do. I've done a few engineering jobs now, and I've found that while the work is incredibly interesting, it doesn't seem to make me fulfilled. The thing that manages to accomplish that feat, however, is acting. It was something I did in high school for fun, but as I continued to do it in college I began to see it more and more as an art form and see just how much it could affect those who were watching it. What I have found is that maybe I liked those videos because of the human aspect of them, not the technical aspect of them. And with that, I have taken on a new goal. Even though I'm at MIT studying mechanical engineering, I want to try pursuing acting as a career. I want to give this passion of mine a shot in my life because I worry that, if I don't, I will ultimately regret my choice. At the same time, I don't want to leave engineering entirely. That is why I am continuing my studies and trying to learn as much as possible. Basically, I feel like I can bring Odyssey this struggle of finding one's place among two very different disciplines. The pull from both of them is so polar and opposite, and it is incredibly terrifying to want to try something that is so "conflicting" with what you're actually studying. I always hear from so many people, "Oh, you're an engineer, they usually aren't very good at acting". What's rewarding is that their responses after seeing me are usually in a very different tone. In January I started a vlog that I titled WhatNext. It basically follows my life and talks about the things I'm doing, whether it be theatrical, technical, or anything else. I feel like Odyssey is a great way to reach new viewers and also show people that you can pursue whatever you're passionate about and defy the stereotypes of modern culture. In my own life, I love being able to defy the stereotypes of MIT, engineers and artists and show publicly what I feel like MIT does privately every day, unbeknownst to the outside world. I want to help share that. In this way, most of my work would be through videography, but I also write and am an amateur photographer who loves sharing my work. I hope Odyssey feels like this is something that can be used!