I can't recall the first time I ever spoke to Kimberle Pillow. I may have promised myself I wouldn't forget it, but did anyway. At any rate, she is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most fascinating and likable individuals I have had the pleasure of kicking it with during my tenure as a high school student. Without further ado, I present a conversation with Kimme Pillow, live and almost uncensored.

Questions and Answers with Kimberle Pillow

When you look back on your five years at Uni High, what do you feel?

I feel sad because I didn’t want to come to Uni [laughs] in the first place. It wasn’t my choice, and I don’t think it was a very good fit for how I think about schooling. I think I would have preferred one of the public schools like UHS [Urbana High School].

In what way do you think Uni was a poor fit for you?

I guess the size of the school, and the people in it — I didn’t feel like I fit in with the more academically geared people. I just feel like the background of Uni kids, I didn’t fit with them very much. I don’t know, I just felt …

Did this lead you to socialize more with non-Uni people during your time at Uni?

Yeah, definitely, I found most of my friends and I usually hang out with mostly people who don’t go to Uni, except for Shara [Esbenshade], like, she’s really the only Uni person that I hang out with on the weekend, and all of the rest of them go to different schools. And so for me, I had to find a social scene outside of Uni to feel more … happy with my high school life.

Do you think that gives you a more diverse perspective on people in general than you would get if you only spent time around rich, upper-middle class white kids?

Yeah, I think it gives me a more rich perspective because you’re meeting new people, and you’re meeting people who aren’t just, like, white and Asian, and they have different backgrounds, and then they have a different experience, which I feel is more like a real-life experience. I feel like it just helps me be more into the real world and this is how people actually are, not just this small group of people who are hand-picked based on their academics and are seen to be, like, the “chosen children,” because that’s a pretty small group. I don’t feel like I really am one of them, and that I really shouldn’t have gone to Uni.

What part of you do you think you could have explored more in a different environment?

I wish I could have done more baking [laughs]. And … I don’t know, that’s probably about it.

That’s cool. What are you going to do now that Uni’s over?

Now I’m going to go to Temple University in Philadelphia. I’m going to do a BA in art and hopefully switch into a BFA at the Tyler School of Art at Temple.

So is that what you want to do with your life, like, be an artist?

I’m not sure yet, but it has the least academics, but right now I’m hoping to go to college and get more immersed in art and see the art culture, so I can decide if I want to do art, because right now I haven’t done very much art except for studio art at Uni, so I want to try to pursue it and see if I like it as a career.

Cool, cool. So geographically, where do you see yourself in x years?

I really like Philadelphia, but probably in a big city, like definitely if you go into the arts scene you have to be in a big city, and Philadelphia is really close to New York City. But the cost of living is extremely high in a big city, and if you’re an artist, you have to be — you’re pretty f****** poor.

Yeah, starving artists.

So, I really don’t want to get stuck in the Midwest again and go out and do great things and then have to go back to a small town like Columbus, which is small. It has a nice arts scene but I just don’t want to be in a small indie arts scene in the Midwest.

So, you’re leaving, but there are people at Uni who share your views and feel the same way you do about a lot of things — what would you say to the younger you?

I’d say, just, if you’re really not happy with Uni, just to switch it, and talk to your parents, I guess? If you feel more like Uni isn’t your fit and that you’d be truly happier somewhere else and that — don’t go to Uni just for the pride of going to Uni. Don’t go to Uni just to go to Uni — you can be like, “Well, I’m not good at math, but if I go to Uni, it will look good on my transcripts for college.” I think that’s a waste. You’re wasting your youth if you’re doing it that way, and college isn’t everything. You don’t have to go to college to have a happy life and find a good career and what you truly love.