#IncomingJuniorAdvice

Hello, upperclassman.

Independence is the way I’d describe junior year. There’s driving, deeper relationships, and a new level of personal responsibility in accomplishing the work of the year of studying. 

Why is junior year so synonymous with studying and doing well?

When you go to apply for college next fall, the palette you’re about to create is the reference Admissions with have—this is what you want to be proud to show them. I’d go into the registrar to quest my transcript, and the last academic record I had for my universities was junior year. Whatever you want them to see, do it this year!

It’s tempting to do whatever will look good on your resume or up your likelihood on your CollegeProwler chances profile (I lived on this website.) But, it’s quickly found that when enthusiasm dies out, it’s not really passion. I started the year with four or five leadership opportunities, and by the end of the year realized that just because I didn’t end up liking them, these things hadn’t been failures—they narrowed my path and pushed me through the process of elimination. The far-off idea of going to UW or UCLA was put into perspective when I went on a leadership conference and was crying to come home at the end of day two. My 16-year-old tears for home showed me that locality was where I was meant to be, and today, I can say that experience did foreshadow what I now confirm. 

Introducing these social relationships to college, what do you do about the relationships at home and your physical college search? For my friends, I picture them marching, hailing that they won’t let anyone stop them from pursuing their dreams, they don’t want to “regret it later!” Romantically, it is a decision that stinks. And for family, sometimes, even more so. “How do I say good-bye?” meaning, “Where can I go far away enough that you’ll see my meaning in ‘farewell?’” or “Someone tell me how to survive the internal breaking of my circuit board.” It’s so exciting to fantasize and picture yourself saying that’s your school, the texts and photos that exist before you on the CollegeBoard website. 

Mindfulness is a key that I needed then that is perfect for your “now.” If you shut everything else out—everything—and think about school A, how do you feel about going there? How do you feel about not? And with options that line the rest of the alphabet, discern the emotion of each possible decision. Do you breathe easier when you think of not going? Hyperventilate when you think of holding back?  

There’s nothing wrong with taking a breath and taking a leap or likewise, appreciating your home and not wanting to leave. During my junior year, I saw a quote (actually, I think it was in one o those college preparation books—I must have had a shelf full of those, at minimum!) that went along the lines of saying you have to pick the place, the school, it said, where you’re going to be most happy—a place where you will be able to learn, for example, and be happy living. Amongst all the options, the place where I could learn, I remember this really hitting me, was a place where I would be happy and not drowning in homesick depression. So, for me, that perfect place is home. 

Find the place where:

• you can find solace on a terrible day
•  you have people to celebrate whatever it is that’ll make you skip home, giddy with joy
• you can study and learn what you want to successfully
• you feel like you’re not settling

For two of my closest girlfriends, it was up north and down south from here. What I love about living up our experiences is that we all picked the place that made us most happy, illustrating that one is not better than the other, but rather, that can only be discerned by the person who will be living there.

The bottom line is you can apply to more than one school. Apply near and far, so if genuinely want to stay with your family or boyfriend or someone who you want and need, you have that option. And make that far-off application! You may find you really need those wings when the clock of graduation strikes. (: 

Doesn’t it seem like relationships are serious here? Either people have been together forever or those people who do meet and start freshly dating instantly appear in the same seriousness. Is it because the newness has worn off and we don’t have those freshman flutters anymore? Is it the maturity that subdues the innocence associated with new love? 

Your older guys have now turned into college men as the clock comes closer to midnight and suddenly all the boys are younger than you. Maybe that’s the change: before, there were years of unknown guys. Now, the options for your age or a) your age or b) a year above. At least, at school. The rest are new, but that’s because they were registered into the district a year after you (; Younger guys do give more attention, but maturity differences expose themselves quite often. 

Prom. The dress, the glamor, the expectation! Make it yours, whether you go or not. My girlfriends and I spent one of ours in our downtown metropolis for a Sex and the City night on the town! To me, that was the best inspiration and fuel to get me through and remind me of what was to come; the reason I compose discussion board responses or heed to my too early A.M. alarm. 

That’s another theme I find in junior year—finding what makes you happy, regardless of what accomplishes the same in others. Our world is too large for one to be “weird” anymore. “Whatever you do, own it!” is what comes to my mind! Embrace prom for all it truly is or create your own night to celebrate your survival and the thriving in high school. Pick a school that you can see yourself at on your best and worst days, a job that will never feel like one, and every other infinite chance that you’re thinking about taking.  

My junior year: Trigonometry. Carpooling on our off time, driving through city, suburb, and country. Debit cards. “Stimulating the economy” by our culinary patronage. Volunteering every Tuesday, 11 to 1. Intro to Business. Wanting to be a businesswoman, whether global, small-business, or real estate. Realizing that I was picking financially set jobs that would leave me with economic comfort to write and deciding to throw it all off and just WRITE. Classes giving me new friends every three months. U.S. History. Forgetting all the careers in the occupational handbook.