College?

How are we supposed to decide where we want to spend the next four years? As the third quarter comes to a close and we only have one quarter left in high school, I am now beginning to worry about where I will go to college. First of all, I would like to say that I am grateful to even have a choice to make because this obviously means that I have been accepted to more than one school. But it is a very stressful decision because there are so many factors in the decision making process. How much does each school cost? Who will give you the most money? Is it a city campus or rural campus? How prestigious is it? Will you fit in with the student body there? Will you be able to have fun and enjoy yourself while you are not studying? Are you comfortable being ____ miles from home? Do they have sports teams that you can cheer for? This past weekend I went on a college visit and I stayed with a current student overnight. It was a great experience and I was able to get an inside look into what life was like at this particular University. But the difficult thing was that I was only there for twenty-three hours. So essentially, I am supposed to decide if I want to go to this school based on what I read on the internet and a twenty-three hour stay on campus. Many of you already know what this process is like and May 1^st is not a day I am looking forward to because at that time I will need to make a final decision and put a deposit down on my tuition. Now hopefully, I will receive a little bit of good news on April 1^st and I will be accepted to a few more colleges. This then means that I will hear from some schools on April 1^st and then I will have one month to evaluate the schools I have been accepted to and then make a final decision. So in that one-month time span I will have to visit a few more schools and spend twenty-three hours on campus to see how I fit into the different colleges. The point is, that there is very little time to decide my future and I do not even know how to make this decision. Should I line up the colleges and make lists of pros and cons? I do not know what will end up happening, but I can assure you that this will be the topic of many late night journal entries. However, like a typical Chagrin kid would, I have wrapped myself up in this issue too much and I have lost sight of the big picture. We all forget that we are extremely lucky to have the ability to make a decision between different four-year colleges and have the ability to pay for it in some way shape or form. So although we all get bent out of shape about this decision (except people like John and Jimmy who have gone Early-Decision…lucky!), we must take a step back and realize what it is we are really complaining about because I am the best example in this case of losing sight of the big picture.

I hope my college classes are like this!