This is my favorite time of the year. The last time I saw any of my students, it was mid-January, the weather was cold and blustery and dreary. The students were harried, exhausted and stressed, racing to finalize their essays as deadlines seemed to loom daily for weeks. Many had dazed looks when they thanked me for the last time, as though stunned by the realization that their fate and their future were truly out of their hands.
Now we are April, as the French would say. The sun has come out, and so have college decisions. When my students call or Zoom to let me know the results, everything is different. They’re fresh-faced and relaxed, bubbling over with news. How the tables have turned! For eight months or more, they presented their test scores, GPAs and extracurriculars to the cold eyes of the college admissions staff, hoping their last four years of hard work were impressive enough. They struggled to find exactly the right words so that their essays would show the hopeful, self-aware, intelligent person behind the numbers. And now? Now it’s the colleges who must beg and plead, cross their fingers and hope to be chosen.
I’m on the side of the students, of course. I know them all so well by the end of the essay-writing process that it’s clear to me that any school would be lucky to have them. After the harrowing application season, I’m thrilled that it’s their turn to choose.
Are you wondering – especially if you’re still a high school student with the application season ahead of you – ‘Aren’t there students who are disappointed? The ones who don’t get into their dream school, for example?’ The problem with this perspective is you’re thinking about the wrong month. Rejections are difficult and painful, and few students make it through the application process without receiving any – but those disappointments occur in the months of February and March. By April, the memory of any disappointments are already fading. No matter how much you wanted to go to University X, University Y wanted *you* and that’s exciting and flattering.
You’ll buy a t-shirt or sweatshirt with University Y scrawled across it, and you’ll start wearing it around. You’ll check out the website and start figuring out what dorm you want to live in, or you’ll go on Reddit and check out what current students are saying. The next thing you know you’ll be filling out housing forms and selecting classes. I’m not saying you’ll forget entirely about the schools you dreamed about – it’s not like your new school greets you with a memory-erasing lazar – but trust me, it won’t matter much. You’re heading off on a new adventure, and regret will not be holding you back.
Strike the Write Note 