Hi Margo, Rita, and Curtis,
While I want to focus on having fun and being happy for my last year, I’m feeling a bit worried about college and life beyond Deerfield, but it sometimes feels like this topic is taboo to discuss. Do you have any advice to help?
Best,
seniorsruletheskl
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Dear seniorsruletheskl,
I am about to utter the three most forbidden words in all of the English language: “The college process”.. BUM Bum bummm. Hello, Class of 2018! Welcome to what may seem like the most stressful time of your lives. Tours and interviews and supplements, oh my! Currently, we are in the thick of it. Some applications have been submitted, many more are left to do, and the waiting has just begun. To aid in this process, here are a few tricks of the trade in hopes that they may help guide you towards some semblance of sanity on this ever lovely journey to higher education.
1. Don’t leave applications until the night before they are due. This one is self-explanatory.
2. Caffeine is your friend. Invest in coffee, Red Bull, 5-hour Energy (heads up: it’s effective, but not approved by the FDA, so maybe not 5-hour Energy), and more coffee! Long nights and the accompanying tired feeling the following day are inevitable. Prepare to drink your caffeine, put a smile on your face, and keep chugging along like the little engine that could.
3. Your college advisor is your friend. Thank them repeatedly for holding your hand through this process. We owe them our lives.
4. Find things that make your days enjoyable, whether they’re walks around campus, jam sessions in the Hess, or shriving in the riv. Good grades are important, but so is your mental health.
5. As all hard times do, eventually this too shall pass. No matter what, we will submit all there is to be submitted, and we will hear the news we are going to hear.
6. In the words of Leo Tolstoy, “Stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” We only have 224 days left on this beautiful campus. While getting into college may be completely consuming your life right now, don’t forget to take time to appreciate who and what is around you here in the valley. We’re only Deerfield students once.
To the ’19, ’20, and ’21s: be respectful. I’m sure you can tell by the gray hairs and wrinkles that have recently sprouted on the bodies of your senior class, senior fall is hard. Be kind to us: we are a little fragile right now. I know it can be difficult to feel out what questions are okay to ask seniors and which ones might not be. Just use your judgement and understand that in a few months we will go back to being the fun, loving 2018s you all know and love.
“We’re all in this together / and it shows when we stand hand in hand/ make our dreams come trueeee”
– High School Musical (2006)
Peace and love,
Margo, Rita, and Curtis