The college spark

Bria Lamonica '17, Editor-in-Chief

Most of us seniors are spending our days filled to the brim with stress and juggling our social lives with our education. We often come down with the common senior sickness, Senioritis. And along with this treacherous illness, comes the common symptoms of staying up all night tossing and turning, listing pros and cons of colleges in our minds instead of doing things like homework and sleeping, and solving all of our life problems by going out to eat with money that we don’t have. Our brains seem to kick into overdrive once January rolls around, and we never stop thinking and overthinking, where will I end up after college? How am I supposed to pick from all these colleges, where is that “spark” that I didn’t feel when I visited campuses, how do I choose one when none of them feel like home?

Along with tackling the terrors of AP classes, extracurriculars, senior trip payments, jobs, scholarship applications, and financial aid packets, senior year is all about choosing what you will do once you graduate. And even though it’s January, and the year is quickly flying by, most of us still have no idea where we will end up come next September.

Some of us grew up knowing from day one where we would continue our education, with Harvard sweatshirts given as presents for every holiday, or Rowan posters lining the walls of your room since you were 13, but that isn’t the case for most. The ones left to struggle with applications, anxiety, and tons of college emails, are pulled in every direction, each person having their own opinion as to what college will be “right for you”.

I am ready for college, but I still have not made a decision as to where I will be going, along with many other seniors. The only thing to do now is the dreadful “sit and wait”, checking the mail every day for scholarship information and acceptance letters, yearning for something or someone else to make the huge decision for me.

Take it from someone who’s going through the stressful experience firsthand, start early. You don’t want to be left trying to flip a coin between colleges on April 30th, the day before the deadline you have to commit to a school by. Even though the most seemingly stressful part for most of us would be waiting for colleges to send that acceptance letter, the anxiety has only just begun and none of us realized it.

What happens when you get into the schools you applied to, and can’t make up your mind? That’s where most of us are stuck now, in the space between applying for colleges and committing to one. Spending hundreds of dollars on college visits and missing tons of school days doesn’t seem like anyone’s cup of tea, but coming from someone who’s traveled ten hours in freezing rain and a snowstorm to visit a college, visiting can really help narrow down your options, and at this point, that is what most of us need.

If you aren’t a Senior, take this as your warning, don’t be like the rest of us and procrastinate, and don’t be afraid to ask for help during this stressful time when it happens to you. Also a word to the wise, if you see a stressball or stress relief lotion on sale, buy it in advance, because you WILL need it. If you are a Senior, pick the college that’s right for you, and I wish you the best of luck in making the tough choice.