If you were to ask me what is the scariest thing I have done so far in my life, I would simply answer:
pick a college.
Picking a college isn’t scary because of the grueling academics and intense social circles that are waiting on college campuses, ready to devour freshmen as soon as they walk up. Picking a college is scary because it is one of the first decisions you make for yourself.
My biggest fear during the spring of my senior year was that I was going to make the wrong decision. My choices came down to my hometown university (which just so happened to be my parents’ alma mater) that boasted the best undergraduate business program in the state and the quaint liberal arts school 700 miles away with the highly acclaimed honors program. Everyone around me seemed so confident in their college choices. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was doing and legit accepted admission, signed up for orientation and had housing at two universities.
*this is how picking a college played out in my dreams, I mean like isn’t dual enrollment a thing*
I kept thinking to myself, “I am 17 years old, I can’t vote, I can’t drink, but apparently I can make a decision that will dictate the rest of my life and cost me and my family thousands and thousands of dollars, cool, cool…I’m fine, it’s fine, everything’s fine”. I started trying to factor in graduate school, made pros and cons lists, considered scholarship money, I wanted to make sure that the opportunity cost of the school I didn’t attend didn’t outweigh the winning school’s benefits, I wanted there to be a logical choice.
Then it hit me: choosing how you want to start the rest of your life doesn’t necessarily have to make sense to everyone in the world, it just needs to feel right for you.
There is no test you can take that tells you where you should go to school. There is also no Magic 8-Ball that will tell you what to do. I even tried staring up at the sky hoping the clouds would part and God would appear with either His horns up or His fin up. I think Natasha Bedingfield said it best when she sang, “No one else can feel it for you”. Your college decision is up to you, and it’s totally reasonable to be terrified by that.
So to all my high school seniors that are freaking out because they either haven’t made a decision or think they have made the wrong decision here is my sage advice: go visit your top schools again. Don’t go on the generic walking tour of campus that you have been on countless times, look at the university from another angle. Ask to see your specific school or program, talk to an academic advisor, go to a baseball game (see that picture of me at Swayze, that was the day I decided to go to Ole Miss), hangout around the college town, get a feel for what it would be like to actually be a student. You will make the right decision, and if you don’t transferring is always on the table. So go out, take a risk, make that scary decision, because trust me it is totally worth it.