The Excitement of it All

Well, I have done quite a bit of traveling so far. I spent the entirety of last week up in the Minneapolis area. I met with several of my students up there and met a lot of new students as well. One of my good college buddies lives in Minneapolis near Lake Calhoun and Uptown and I was able to hang out with her quite a bit. It was good to experience Minneapolis with a friend. I have found that friends make cities come alive in ways that touring a new place alone cannot compare to.

Another highlight of my Minnesota adventures was finding my old house. I had some time after my visit to Armstrong high school so I thought I would drive into Plymouth a little further. I was able to patch together some of my five year old memories and locate the first house that I remember living in. The house was a lot bigger than I remember. The street I lived on, however, seemed much smaller than I remember. Perhaps I found the house confining and the outside area liberating when I was young. I am not quite sure.

This week I am back in Indiana. I am currently writing in Central Park in Warsaw, which is south of Goshen and Elkhart for those of you not familiar with Northern Indiana. I have visited several schools in South Bend, Mishawaka, and Elkhart so far, and I have a few more. I am going to the Warsaw college fair in a little bit, will go the college fair in Plymouth Indiana (not Minnesota) tomorrow night, and was at the Saint Joseph County College fair last night.

It is exciting to be out on the road. I really enjoy seeing new places and meeting new people. More than that, though, it is exciting to meet seniors in the fall of their college decision process. The majority of high school seniors feel the greatest pressure of the college decision process as we speak. The fall is a time of great confusion and anxiety. Though I am sure that most an idea of where they want to go to college, the list is still not narrowed down to one yet (nor should it be). There are a few schools that offer what many of you find appealing and competitive. How should you know where to spend the greatest four years of your life?! You are just a high school student! This sort of confusion presses on one and causes stress when contemplating the future.

I am writing this to also encourage you to live it up. This is an exciting time in your life. There are several opportunities just waiting to be realized and experienced before all of you. That is the most exciting thing about senior year. You all are on the eve of opportunity. Later in life you will look back and see choices that you have made. You chose one college over another, one major over another, one job over another, etc. You will see on the other side of the choices that you will have made that there are opportunities that were closed by the choice that you made. There will be good and bad things about those moments of reflection that lie ahead of you. But now, at this time in your life, there is only opportunity. You can go to this school or that (or be wise and choose Valpo! I love shameless plugs…). You can study anything from Philosophy to Mechanical Engineering, Nursing to Accounting, Exercise Science to English. You can choose to go to school in the Midwest, East Coast, or out West. You can choose to study abroad. You can choose stay near home or venture out a little bit. You may not be certain about which of these paths to choose yet, but one thing is for certain, these possibility lies at your doorstep. The great beyond awaits you. The future is waiting to become yours.

It is an exciting time to be a senior. Win your football games, cross country meets, and soccer games. Rock out the tuba, violin, or whatever it is that you play. Lead your high school to greatness. But most of all, live up your moment of possibility. Live up this moment before you head out and are defined by the world and the choices that you make. Enjoy this moment, for it is unique and you will want to remember it when it has passed.