College. A topic every senior is forced to think about and stress about and be so confused about. Our school forces the topic onto seniors’ minds even if they have decided not to go to college, they still have to repeat themselves multiple times. 

Some students are already being accepted into the colleges they have chosen, others are biting their fingernails in anticipation of acceptance. 

Seniors go through the tiresome process of answering questions on the common app most don’t even know the answers to. More questions to answer through Naviance and then again for the colleges that don’t use that same connection. 

Weeks of perfecting the perfect essay to send to colleges, unique but not strange, nothing usual and familiar, but nothing so weird that we seem weird. Writing and reading, reading and editing, editing and rereading again, then cutting down and reading, re-reading again and again and again until all the words bleed together. 

But some decide not to do it, “college isn’t a good fit for me” Penny Annis, a senior says when asked about the subject. Instead of the questions upon questions upon questions that applying for college gives a person a penny and a few others have free time to work, do all their homework, keep the same routines and hours of sleep while most others try to work college applications into the mix. They have chosen to do something different after high school. “I would like to travel, and school isn’t a good fit for that.” Penny continued.

“College has been my whole life. I’m only going to school, so I don’t end up on the street.” Alex Cuevas, another senior says. People go to college for all sorts of reasons, many to get a higher education, some for-life experience, others are forced to. “I’m going to be spending money so I can make money later.” Alex continues their point.

Most decide to go to college and end up stressed for the majority of the first semester of school, sometimes longer, for the schools of their choice to write back. Not everyone chooses that path but the one thing every senior is expected to know is what we want to do when we are finally seen as adults in this world.