Elise
The college search and all the stresses that come with it begin at the start of junior year. With the help of friends and family, Junior Elise eased these stresses. She follows the belief: "If I stick to my heart, I'll be happy with whatever I do."
Instead, Elise puts most of her energy into getting excited about college, rather than dreading the application process. "I enjoy looking at all the different options, I'm not stressing at the moment," she said.
Like most, Elise is unsure of what her future holds, but has general ideas about what she wants to contribute to the world. "All I know is that I want to make a difference in people lives," she said. "I want to be able to help others." Elise has tried to prepare herself for a future of improving people's lives by working at Children's Hospital this summer.
Elise stresses that living in the present takes priority and that obsessing over the future, like many do at South, can lead to one's future to be "thrown away.”
"I don't think the future is worth dwelling on," she said. "I think it's worth thinking about, but if we dwell on it, it just is overwhelming and we lose track of what is happening in the present."
Cody
Freshman Cody may not have to deal with college pressures in the same way as upperclassmen, but he still feels pressures concerning his future, primarily from his family.
Cody's father consistently pressures him to play as many sports as he can in order to have a more diverse college application. Cody feels his father's recommendation is asking too much of him.
"I don’t need to play football and all these other sports just to get into college … I just quit football cause I couldn’t handle it and my dad was putting too much pressure on me, so I just quit."
Though Cody is continuing with other sports, his main focus for his future lies in baking. "I want to open up my own bakery," he said.
Though Cody finds it difficult to predict or guarantee his future, he is still trying to shape it by taking the International Cuisine course and baking goods for South Side bake sales.
Other than this however, Cody feels unsure about his future since he is "not really sure what South has to offer me."
As Cody watches his junior and senior friends "freak out" over the college process, he feels grateful he can relax when the topic arises.
"I don’t think [college] is worth worrying about. We're in ninth grade right now, maybe when we're juniors we can start worrying about it, but not right now."
Jack
While most seniors stress to make college admission deadlines, senior Jack feels that the process has been going “pretty well.”
With eight colleges on his list and one early decision application ready, “everything’s there, it just has to be finalized,” he said. "I haven’t really felt the fire yet.”
Jack found many of the schools that he visited last year similar.
“Someone [once] said [to me], ‘look, [if] you’re learning Shakespeare … whatever university you’re at, it’s [still] Shakespeare,” he said.
“When it comes down to it, finding the right college isn’t about finding the best academics … it’s about what’s the right fit,” he said.
Jack’s first choice school, however, “stood out to [him]” in a way no other school did.
Like many other students, Jack may defer his admission for a year.
“You’ve been going to school straight for 13 years … I think it would be good to kind of take a break.”
Once Jack gets into college, he has no idea what he’ll want to study. “For the most part, I’m very undecided,” he said.
“I could tell you that I want to be a doctor, or I want to be a lawyer ... but it wouldn’t mean anything, because there’s a whole four plus years ahead of you.”
Nina
Nina thinks worrying about college as a sophomore is a “waste of time.” Even so, Nina finds the topic of college hard to ignore at South.
“Especially in Newton and at South, [college] is the one thing that’s pushed so much,” she said. “People are always talking about tests and midterms and report cards.”
Nina tries to repel any premature thoughts of college from her peers. “Compared to my friends, I actually don’t think about it nearly as much,” she said.
“Once you hit high school, [the thought of college] is always lingering in the back of everyone’s mind.” Nina believes that this constant reminder of college prompts people to built their schedules around what they wish to put on a college application.
“There’s no focus on liking what you’re doing at the time or being happy with that,” she said. “One of the reasons that I don’t like Newton [is because] everything you do is so that you can get into a good college.
According to Nina, at South “[college] is just a given for everyone.”
Clinging onto her childhood dream of becoming a famous singer, Nina does not see college as being highly crucial to her future. “Ideally, if I could, I would want to be a singer or guitar player like Taylor Swift … [but] I see myself going [to college] anyways,” she said.
Nina stressed that now was too early to decide on her future. “I’d be surprised if anyone right now was able to decide what they want to do with their lives,” she said. “We’re 15 years old, that just seems crazy to me.”
