College preparation more than one year ordeal

Kristy Maydwell

 

Every high school student has grimaced over the topic of college at least once in their life.  Many procrastinate, trying to keep every brain cell safe from the horrifying thought that one day they would have to do their own laundry, cook, and make their own beds, all while completing 20 page essays, reading more books than they can count, and having foreign teachers they can barely understand.

 

Yes, ladies, I’m talking about the distressing word, “responsibility.”  College means freedom, which means no parents.  This, I’m sorry to say, means responsibility.

 

When you are a freshman, college seems so far away. You have the privilege of thinking only of the positive consequences of going to college.   The thought that you will one day be stressed does not even enter your mind.  I, also, was faulty of this.

 

Then sophomore year comes, and some guilt leaks into your brain, for you know that you should start thinking about college.  But instead, like every other sophomore before you, you place it on a high shelf where you will no longer have to think about it.  Every time I even heard the word “college,” I would decide that I was temporarily deaf and didn’t hear a thing.  College still did not apply to me; big mistake.

 

By junior year, some of the senior panic sets in, but once again you secure it in the far corner of your mind.  There is still a whole year to think about college and its frightening consequences.  I remember how the panic crept up on me by the time I took my SAT and ACT that year.  When I applied for the SAT and ACT and saw that I was supposed to have colleges that I want the tests sent to, it finally hit me that college was very close.  I had only been worried about doing well on the tests, and I

 had not realized the dilemma of having to decide which school I would want to go to.  I was definitely stressed.

 

When senior year finally rolls around, you say, “Four years go by really fast.”  So you run around like a chicken with your head cut off, regretting every time you had ignored that little red signal going off in your head.  Applications must be sent out, recommendations and essays must be written, scholarships must be applied to, and a decision must be made.

 

Please take advice from a poor senior.  Do not let your attic get dusty; clean it out and start preparing it for college.  Do not humiliate yourself like other seniors, running around with your head cut off, hands full of college applications that were due last week.