While I was in physics the other day, I noticed that my neighbor had a list of colleges that were visiting the school, and a long list of college application results and enrollment stats of our school. Next to the application results list, he highlighted the colleges of interest, and he figured out the percentage of acceptance rate in our school from all the colleges.
When I commented on it, he smiled at me: "I'm a little bit freaked out about colleges now."
We are not seniors, but we're only a year away from being the oldest students in the school. But I always reckon that the environment of our school made people nervous about college. The school made it clear that it is a college-preparatory school, and they constantly remind us that everything we do from 9th to 12th grade is for the sake of applying to a college. Sure, I didn't think about colleges much in 9th grade, but after the PSAT in 10th grade, and receiving brochures from various colleges (a lot of them were from colleges I never heard before), the thought of college slowly began to sink in.
Now, as a junior, as I told my neighbor in physics, I'm totally freaking about about colleges.
So now I starts to gather information about my desired choices of colleges, I printed out the national rankings of the colleges and highlight the ones of interests. I looked at the common application forms and checked out the admission sites. While I do have an idea of what colleges I wish to apply to, it's still a hazy plan. So much can happen in the course of the year that can change your mind. Then there's my childish fear of "what if I completely screw up this year?", "what if I flunk the SAT?", and "what if _______ University rejected me?", all of which added to my fragile anxiety. While it's good to get an early start on thinking about college, sometimes I think my actions and researches could be a bit over the top.
And sometimes I look back, and it just dawn on me again and again that everything I worked for in high school is just basically in preparation for college. Then everything I work for in college will be about getting a good job, and everything I work for in a job will be about getting the bills paid. Everything is just a cycle, man, just a cycle.
