There’s two realities in our heads.
- You get into a prestigious college OR you don’t get into your top school
- You get a good job OR work a job you hate
- Your life is exactly what you wished it would be OR you’re living a nightmare
But let me help dispel this bias that many of us hold.
At this point in a senior’s high school career, everything they have done has led up to this. We have one more year of high school, yet one foot out the door to our future. College application season is in full swing, and the senior class is up to bat.
College applications and a whole class of students focusing on where they want to go to school, really exemplifies the extremity that we often take things to in our minds. Worst case is taken to a new level. “If I don’t get into my dream school, I won’t get a good job, and I won’t have a good life” is what replays in many of our minds.
The way things are, brings students to believe they have to have their entire life planned at the ripe age of 17. I can’t speak for the rest of my peers, but I certainly have no clue where I’ll be even a year from now. With this uncertainty, comes a vision that is painted through ideals. Suddenly, all you want to do is go to NYU or UCLA, wherever it may be, you start to picture yourself living the glamorous life you’ve seen in movies.
While we scroll through the Common App, adding schools to our list, our possibilities broaden, but still that one school is in your mind the most. Feeling as though no other school matters.
Reality sets in, your dream school has a 10% acceptance rate, with the hopes of not sounding too cynical, chances are you won’t get in.
While this pressure feels like the end of the world, everything will fall into place. Some of us will get into the school we’ve wanted to go to since the beginning of this whole process. Some of us will choose our 3rd top school.
At the risk of coming off corny, I do think – or like to think – that everything happens for a reason. Each event that happens leads us to where we’re supposed to be, opening doors to new possibilities and opportunities.
