Meredith Luchs
Reporter
@mluchscourant
So there you are, switching between the Portal, Naviance, the Common App and USA Today rankings, frantically calculating what grade you need to get on your next Calculus test so your GPA does not tank below the average accepted GPA of your dream school because if it does, you’ll die.
Stop. I’m going to make you a nice cup of tea or coffee or Campbell’s soup and let’s realize how incredible it is that you finished high school. Do you realize how many people have not had that privilege? The fact that education is even a standardized right for children u
nder the age of 16 in our country is incredible. How amazing is it that a public education is provided for everyone, not just the rich or politically elite?
Let’s also appreciate the scope of what you have already learned. You learned the structure of a triangle, the structure of verse, the structure of a democracy and the structure of an atom. To have had such a thorough and challenging education has broadened your horizons and strengthened you as a global citizen more than you may realize.
Okay, good perspective break. Back to the issue of contention: college. I know so many people who are under crippling stress from the college process. It changes their whole perspective on their school work, turning the molehill into a mountain, making everything feel insurmountable.
Firstly, I can promise you, you will get in somewhere. You will also get rejected. Think about it: if a college that was going to reject you decided, “Eh, they look like a nice person, we’ll let them in.”, it will not turn out well for you. The studies will prove too rigorous, or the other students will all be very artsy kids while you wanted a school with a strong sense of sports pride, or maybe they will all be invested in political causes while you can barely give a damn over which cereal you have for breakfast. Either way, it’s for the best.
What if your friend gets into your dream school and you don’t? Look, as much as you may want it to be, this is not a competition nor is it a predictor of your “success” in life. Be happy for your friend, be happy that you have both achieved a major milestone in your life and are about to embark on an awesome four (ish) years of 3am discussions over politics, introductions to niche classes and interests, and hopefully just the right amount of mistake making.
In Chinese, the word for crisis also means opportunity. Now that’s kind of a tricky concept. My advice? Look for the opportunity in your crisis. There is some reason for you to be there, some friend you have to meet, some class you have to take, some club you have to join that is important to your journey.
It could even be the case that you get to a college, realize you hate it, transfer and then later sit back with the knowledge, at least, of what you don’t like, and how to deal with it. Maybe you went to a college, found out it had a very hard work ethic, and discovered that for you, it’s important to take it slower, to spend some time smelling the flowers. Then, you would at least have learned that about yourself.
Maybe, to cope with the hard work ethic of your classes, you began going to the gym a lot more to relieve stress, and discovered this was a very effective strategy for you. Maybe, even, you discovered that you love running, and at your next college you join a running club, and move on to become a passionate marathoner for the rest of your life. Then, hey, good thing you ended up at that college that made you so stressed that you had to find a way to cope.
My final piece of advice (and perhaps this will become your mantra, too) is a quote from something. I can’t remember what exactly, but I at least know I didn’t make it up:
“In the end, it will be okay, if it’s not okay, then it’s not the end.”
