Live Music and Junior Year

Seems it wasn't that long ago I was sitting at my desk in a virtually empty building listening to online streaming sets from Phish's summer tour a little louder than would probably be acceptable in most workplaces.  Occasionally I took my shoes off.  Working here during the summer is like working a totally different job.  For two months, Groesbeck is a ghost town.  I spend a lot of time staring at spreadsheets of application data.  Students stop in rarely and almost always email first; the usual interruptions and unannounced drop-in visits come to an unnerving halt at the end of May.  Summer provides an opportunity to tap into my inner introvert and to dig into our application results in a way that time doesn't usually allow for during the year.  But, man, is it quiet.

Fortunately it doesn't last long.  By mid-August, we're back in full swing.  An empty building suddenly comes to life.  Thinking of those Phish shows, I imagine it's kind of like a band emerging from the darkened hush of a stadium tunnel onto a stage: a jolt of noise, lights, and suddenly lots of screaming people.   Summer just ends.  One day I show up and the stillness has yielded to hordes of exuberant, rowdy teenagers.  It's jarring at first, but it's a welcome change.  Most people don't choose to work in schools if they want prolonged periods of solitude behind a computer screen.  Seven or eight weeks of that is plenty for me.

To continue the analogy, I bet our returning students feel sort of like fans that have just barely gotten to their seats for the start of the concert - fans that did the awkward not-quite-a-jog-but-definitely-not-a-comfortable-walk to their seats hoping not to miss anything.  I've done that strange version of the power-walk.  There you stand as the first notes are played, a little winded, a little overwhelmed, and without having had a minute to sit down or catch your breath.  Your think, "Wait, did I make it?  Did I get here in time?  Have I missed anything?"  

It seems our juniors in particular come out of the whirlwind start to the school year wondering just that.  Many assume they should be thinking a lot about college.  But, wait.  What about college?  Am I supposed to know where I'm going?  Shouldn't I have taken the ACT by now - how did I miss that?  Didn't I read online somewhere that I should have spent my summer visiting every college beginning with the letter Q (you know, for good luck)?!  

Worry not.  You've gotten to your seat in time, and the first set is just beginning.  (Sorry.  Concert analogy again).  Catch your breath.  Settle in and get your bearings.  We'll walk you through our college counseling plan for these next two years at October's junior college night.  There's not much you should be worrying about before then.

If you want to start looking at the calendar for winter test dates for the SAT or ACT, that's fine.  But if you are right in the middle of football season, cross country, the musical, or whatever you're up to and know you won't possibly be focused on the SAT or ACT in October or November, don't feel rushed to take it.  All of our juniors take the PSAT during school in October, and that's a nice built-in practice for an official test later in the winter or early spring.  In fact, you have six chances to take both the ACT and the SAT between this December and the first application deadlines in October of your senior year.  That's 12 total opportunities between the two tests before you really even sniff the very earliest of deadlines. 

In the meantime, stop into the visits we host with college reps from across the country (and some from around the world).  We expect about 100 college visitors this year.  These visits are a good way to start learning about schools you might be interested in.  But branch out.  Don't just visit with colleges you know.  Learn about someplace new.    

Most importantly, keep your grades up, work hard, and enjoy these first weeks back.  You aren't behind.  You haven't missed anything.  You're right where you should be.