Dear High School Seniors,

It’s the thing that you’ll dread talking about the most. The thing that causes so much stress for you that you’ll make yourself sick or depressed. It’s responsible for late nights glued to a computer screen, and large cups of coffee in the morning. It determines the rest of your life even if you are only 18 when you make your decision. College. If I had a dime for every time a teacher reminded me about it, I would be filthy rich; I wouldn’t even need to go to college in the first place.

What I have noticed throughout my life is that the impact of college is different for everyone. Some have a dream school and feel that if they don’t get into it their life is completely over. Others are extremely cocky. They have no humility until one college decision comes out and changes their whole attitude. Then there’s always that one person who truly believes that they won’t get in anywhere. That person was me. A lot of people assured me that I would get in somewhere. All of my hard work would pay off, and I could finally feel proud of myself. However, I have a lot of humility. I remembered all the tests I failed and all the marks I missed. Could my best really be good enough? No, of course not.

Where I grew up, college was not a big deal. If you chose not to go to college or decided on community college, no one looked down on you. It was fine. No one thought you were stupid as long as you had some sort of plan for the rest of your life. It was a very different environment from what it is now. I was a new student my freshman year of high school. I quickly realized how suffocating the competition was. The way that my classmates looked at college was totally different from my view. Where I’m from, people were so excited to go to the University of Illinois-Urbana, Champaign, but here it was “normal” to be accepted to attend. It wouldn’t be categorized as a big accomplishment because it was just a Big Ten school.

“Yay you. You got in just like everyone else.”

It’s kind of funny because while I heard my peers mocking the school, I thought to myself,

“You better be careful because most of you will end up going there.”

Sure enough, I was right. Some may disagree on my classmates’ attitudes towards college because they don’t see it that way, but I noticed it everyday.

For the past few years, I heard the people around me belittle others. I heard things in the hallway that made me upset even if they weren’t directed toward me.

“Wait, you only got a 32 on the ACT? You must have had an off day or something.”

“Wow, that AP test was really hard. I think I only got a 4.”

“Oh, I knew you were gonna get in! It’s not like that school’s that hard to get into.”

Needless to say, their definition of “smart” was very different from mine. It stressed me out a lot. It made me feel inferior because my middle school did not prepare me to go to a rigorous high school like this. I knew that if they saw how I was doing, they would think less of me. I became so afraid of what would happen my senior year. Could my best really be good enough? No, of course not.

Then my college decisions started coming out. Unlike a lot of people, I actually got into my dream school. I was pleasantly surprised about it, because I had checked over those essays about a million times, and I had always felt that anything I wrote would mean nothing. There was only one problem now. My dream school wasn’t an Ivy League. It wasn’t Stanford, UC Berkeley, or Duke. It wasn’t even Johns Hopkins. It was Purdue. Another Big Ten school.

I felt so happy that I was going there. I had no shame in it, but other people did for me. I remember that someone asked me where I was going a few months ago. I told them, and all they had to say was,

“That’s it?”

What do you mean “That’s it?” That’s everything! I have poured my blood, sweat, and tears into everything so I could answer your question, and you respond with that? Then my little brother’s classmates would ask him where his big sister was going. He would get responses like “Oh…that’s nice I guess.” Then my brother would say it’s for engineering, and I guess that was deemed acceptable. I guarantee you that if I was going to a more “prestigious” university I would not have gotten those reactions.

Prestige is NOT everything. You may not see it this way now, but some of the people that you think are going to be successful someday aren’t. It’s not enough to be smart. You have to have persistence and passion about what you want to do. That’s what really matters. You can’t expect greatness just because you worked really hard. Those awards that all your friends won won’t mean anything in a year. Yeah, they’re great to show off, but there is more to life than that. You can still be proud even if it’s not the University of Chicago. Just be grateful that you even have the ability to go to college.

Also, it is totally acceptable to have as much college wear as you can afford. Never ever let anyone tell you that you’re wearing too much of it. You can never wear too much.

Just know that the world does not favor you; it is indifferent. So work hard on your essays this summer. Shoot for the stars but remember that the moon isn’t anything to laugh at either.

Best wishes for your future,

A College Freshman