Writing Prompt #2: Why did you go to NCSSM?

Why did you decide to leave home and go to the NC School of Science and Math in Durham? (Alternatively; write a story about your life in the first half of 1980.)

Description:
Write a story about your personal reasons for applying for the School of Science and Math in February of 1980, and for accepting the invitation (in May 1980) to enter the first class. (Try not to focus on the application process. That may be the subject of a future prompt.)

Describe in action, dialogue, and/or details the reasons that you chose to apply for an unproven public residential "STEM"-focused high school rather than attending the high school in your own home town.