Dear distant relative, family friend, work acquaintance, miscellaneous adult in my life:

There is one topic that dominates my life. At one point or another, you all have asked me about it, trying to interpret my answer into some tell-tale sign about my personality and success in life. You have -- intentionally or not -- shown me that it doesn't really matter how I'm doing emotionally or physically; it only matters whether or not I have constructed a well-thought out answer to your inevitable questions. My response is simple: please, please, please stop asking me about college.

I understand that it's an easy topic to resort to when you don't know me well, know nothing about me or need a conversational hurdle to jump over. The fact of the matter is that I'll be a senior in high school, and the one thing you know for certain is that I'll probably be looking at schools by now. It's an innocent and caring inquiry, and you truly don't mean any harm by it. But when it's the topic that I'm discussing on a regular basis, being constantly bombarded with it loses its luster after the first hundred times.

The conversations are fairly the same every time they take place. You ask what schools I'm looking at, and I respond with some variation of ,"I know I want to pursue creative writing or journalism, and I'm looking at several schools but haven't made any decisions, yet." I then feel the need to defend myself, exclaiming, "I still have time, though!" Normally, you'll dig deeper and ask what schools I'm interested in, what size of school I'm looking for or even interject with schools you think would be good for me based on minimal information that you possess about who I am and what I love. I understand your excitement for me, as college is an exciting prospect, but it is stressful and puts me in an uncomfortable position.

If you were to really know how much the conversation aggravates me, you should know a little backstory for my college search. I've taken the ACT three times in order to be good enough to get into important schools. I see a private college counselor, with whom I have selected 13 schools to apply. I've already started to apply to universities, the first of my peers to do so. This somehow never seems to be good enough, though.

There always seems to be an adult who feels the need to overshadow my accomplishments. They'll tell me about how their ACT score was better, that they were accepted early decision for an Ivy League school or about how their math skills are clearly superior. Your accomplishments are just that -- yours. I have my own things to be proud of, and attempting to compare yourself to a 17-year-old isn't helpful. My college experience will be unique and individualized, and while I appreciate your insights these comments don't contribute positively to an already stressful time of my life.

The search for colleges is stressful, and the constant talk about it is mundane and discourteous. I get so anxious and pinched over it that strands of my hair will come out in small clusters. Panic attacks loom on the horizon. Asking repeatedly about college and my progress during the process is a lot more noxious than you can imagine.

I'm more than my education, and there's a myriad of other topics you could ask me about instead of the one that I don't have a definitive answer for. You could ask me about how I'm doing emotionally. You could ask me about books I'm reading, what movies I think are terribly overrated, or what happened on a recent episode of "Scandal." If you ask me about topics that are interesting and convivial, chances are that our conversation will be much more pleasant.

I implore you, please pick another subject to broach with me. I'm not saying that you should never bring up my post-secondary education, I'm just asking that you give it a rest for a bit. Please, please, please -- just let me breathe.