College on the Horizon
By Meredith Rhoades
Big Dreams, Big Decisions
“So, what are your plans after high school?” “Are you planning to get a job?” “Are you going to school?”
These seem to be the only things people want to ask kids my age lately. It seems fitting, though, because all my mind seems to think about is: “What the heck am I going to do with the rest of my life?”
All my life, I dreamed about moving away from Schuylkill County. I wanted to get out and experience the world. But it wasn’t until I started visiting colleges and writing essays about why I wanted to leave that I realized how much I wanted to stay.
The Safety of Home
Schuylkill County has acted as a safety blanket for me. Being here makes me feel safe, it makes me feel like someone will always have my back and protect me.
Leaving this county means leaving this “bubble” of protection built around me. It means leaving and only coming back when it’s needed, or when my parents want to drive to come get me.
I won’t always have 10 people stopping me to have a conversation about what’s going on with me when I’m just trying to buy bread at the Food Store. I won’t always have teachers that know, and are interested in, what’s going on in my life. I won’t always have people looking out for me everywhere I go. Now what will I do?
Personal Challenges
Life is tough, especially when you’re a big dreamer and a perfectionist. You want to follow all the crazy aspirations bouncing around in your brain, but you also don’t want to do it wrong or not well enough. You want to just go for it, but you can’t help but be timid in your approach. Everything must be perfect.
This way of doing things isn’t helpful when applying for schools because you want to apply to the distinguished schools (and all of them at that), but you want to take weeks perfecting every application. Let me just tell you, this is not effective and will lead to much stress.
But what else can I do? I want to make sure every school loves me and wants me. I want every school to think my application is perfect. But for what?
On the Right Path
What is the point of all of these essays and questions? Well, quite honestly, I still don’t know the academic reasoning, but what I do know is that I learned a lot about myself so far.
Just thinking about what to write made me delve into my experiences throughout my life. It made me really think about what caused me to take the path I am taking today.
I may still not know where I am going to college, or what I’m going to major in, but I do know that I’m always going to have a home to come back to and a bright future that only I control.