The Envelope, Please
Thanh-Tran Nguyen, a student at Lakeside School in Seattle, is one of eight high school seniors around the world who are blogging about their college searches.
The sun is starting to withdraw from our usually gloomy Seattle skies. No more sweating in 80-degree weather and I finally get to take a breath from my rush of summer enrichment programs.
Until August, I was the one my friends would call "spontaneous."
"Hey, tomorrow night, wanna head over to Magnuson Park and watch Monty Python?"
"Yes! I'll bring all my blankets!"
Now it's different. I've spent the last few weeks focusing on my future. That's 10 hours a day, 14 days straight. It's getting harder to keep up with who I was just a few weeks ago.
For the past two months, I've been scurrying around, going from Lakeside's college writing class to the University of Washington for its computer science introduction, narrowly missing the start of two Rainier Scholars Leadership Development retreats, and then ending up back at my school for application boot camp.
Amid all these back-to-back summer schools, I needed to be in two places at once. I'm surprised I managed to do it without any superpowers.
Looking back at just August alone, I'm shocked. I would never have a schedule so packed that I would have to cut the ends of my obligations.
But this is what it means to be a senior.
Does being a college-bound senior mean having very little time for yourself? For your family and friends?
My hobbies have been less about pleasure and more about my resume. Any conversation has the potential to cause me stress. "So, what colleges are you thinking about? Have you written anything yet? Look how far I've gone, but I'm still freaking out!" That's the new norm for anyone looking to do more than graduate from high school.
Welcome to 12th grade. Exits are to your right or left, depending on which way leads you to your first college degree.
Right now, I'm sitting in on our school's college counseling application boot camp. Imagine my shock when I arrived just a few minutes into the boot camp, only to find half of my graduating class already hunched over their laptops.
We were just a bunch of children when we started down this long road. It's a frightening to be in a room full of classmates actually focusing on getting the Common Application filled out, or making sure the proper past tense of "drink" is "drank."
I'm Thanh-Tran Nguyen. I am a self-proclaimed queen of mediocrity, whose crown weighs just as heavy as any other senior's.
But I'm excited to be back in school. This moment, this year, is the start of leadership. Now that I'm just a few months past being a junior, the world started opening up to be the fabled oyster to everyone's pearl.
Being a senior means leading the rest of the student body to a successful school year. Seniors lead the schools' teams, clubs and student governments. My first step on campus as a 12th grader is one step closer to taking lead of who I am, and where I'll go.
I am a senior on a quest for higher education, yet worried about an uncertain future. However tough the seas may be, let the winds blow beneath my sails to bring me to where no one has been before.
Ms. Nguyen, a student at Lakeside School in Seattle, is one of eight high school seniors around the world who are blogging about their college searches for The Choice. To comment on what she has written, please use the comment box below.
By THANH-TRAN NGUYEN 17 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/envelope-please-thanh-tran-nguyen-1/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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