The Question

I published this post last year, but thought it may be helpful to those of you who are now in your senior year. Enjoy!

There are interesting times in life when people find it convenient to hound you with questions for which you have no convenient answers. Having recently planned my wedding, I found that the wedding planning process draws a great number of answerless questions. Having also recently graduated, I found several people asking me about job prospects when I had none. Worse than these moments of questioning, though, was my senior year of high school.
In a lot of ways senior year is the best year of high school that one could have. Students, underclassmen, faculty, administrators, parents, etc. treat seniors with much greater respect than freshman, sophomores, or juniors. The red carpet is metaphorically rolled out for the seniors as they enter the school for their final year in the fall. In the school, there are no older students to treat their ambitions and existences as inferior. Furthermore, the sheer excitement of one's ensuing graduation overtakes the whole of the senior class and envelopes it with an energy unparalleled by any other group of students in school. It is just fun to be senior. Well, most parts of the year are fun....
Along with the excitement comes the endless questions. I shouldn't really say the endless 'questions', but rather the question, which is repeated endlessly: "So, where you going to college next year?" This question seems to start at the very beginning of the year. Before you have even gotten your bearings for your final year (and sometimes even before your senior year starts) they ask "the question". At first you hear it just a little. For most, it seems odd that anyone would inquire about which college you prefer at this time of year. How should you know where you want to spend your next four years? You haven't even figured out how you want to spend this year, let alone how you want to spend the four most formative years of your life. Why are they asking about this now? But, most are able to shrug the question off at first with little consequence.
However, as the leaves change and the temperature drops (for those of us in the upper Midwest), the question starts to hit home a little more. The question does not get to you because your answer has changed. You still do not know where to go. How should you know which college is best for you? How could you ever know that? No, the question hits home because you are starting to ask it yourself. You say to yourself: "Wait a minute, where am I going to college?" Your future seems much closer as you become comfortable with your senior status and really begin to realize that you are on your way out. When you pose the question to yourself it seems more daunting and it seems more real than ever before.
And to make it worse, they keep asking you, as well. By they, of course, I mean your parents, teachers, friends, and random adults in the community who you barely know. The only thing that could make the question more appalling to you at this point in time is for them to ask it to you. Sure enough, they do and they don't stop. One person will ask it. Then another. Then another. Then someone who already asked you. Then another.... and so on. Your answer does not change but they ask the question anyway. This is the worst time for them to seek an answer to this answerless question. This is the worst time for your college confusion, as well. You hit a point when you have several schools on your list and no way of deciding between them. The future is looming over you, as well as people nagging you for a decision about which college you will choose.
Though this is a difficult time, my advice is to be patient. The question will sort itself out. It has an almost magical way of eventually finding its own answer. Though the endless questioning continues to bring frustration and confusion, the question of which college is right for you will find a clearer answer down the road. The answer as to which college is for you may not come with total certainty, but be patient and you will be able to see an answer with greater clarity. In time you will find the college that is right for you and, like me, you will reflect on your experience with ease... later on.