This is me not freaking out about college

 As blog is my witness, I am not going to lose my shit about the college admissions process, even though I barely slept the other night knowing the common app opened on 8/1.

I am someone who HATES deadlines. Like, I would rather complete a project 3 months before it's due than know that the deadline looms in the distance.

Harry is someone who is not at all bothered by completing his work at 11:59:59 pm.

My idea of college applications (THE APP IS OPEN. HE CAN APPLY EVERYWHERE RIGHT NOW AND THEN SIT BACK AND ENJOY HIS SENIOR YEAR) and his idea of college applications ("let's not worry about it until the literal last second, mom, and then you won't have to worry about it at all because you will have actually died from the anxiety of not me not applying") don't completely match.

I am not going to freak out, though.

You know why? Okay, a couple of reasons: 

Harry is not applying to any reach schools. At first I was stressed because his counselor was like dude why don't you have any reach schools? but then I remembered that I applied to ONE SINGLE SCHOOL, and that school covered me up in merit scholarships. I did not reach either, and things have turned out just fine. 

Thanks to COVID, he does not have to take ACT/SAT exams. A really awesome score would help his application, but not submitting scores will not hurt his application-- that's awesome and a worry to cross off the list. (Although the other kids will probably not be so lucky, and we really need to sign Jack up for test prep RIGHT NOW). SAT/ACT are making a big push via email and social right now to freak parents like me out about the importance of scores, but they have to because schools dropping the requirement has really hurt their bottom line. For once in my life, I am not going to be fooled by advertisement (she says in her Rothy's and Third Love bra).

We live in a state with a really terrific system of universities. Of course the flagship is the showiest and the one all the kids think of first, but our regional campuses are STELLAR-- in beautiful cities with affordable tuition and small classes taught by faculty. WISCONSIN IS HIS OYSTER is what I am saying.

Ben and I work in higher ed, and we are more familiar with how things work, which makes the daunting application process less scary (but it is still both daunting and scary, to be sure). I need to remember this when I am reading about stress (manufactured by freaking test companies) on the internet.

Finally, I am not inclined to be a big competitive weirdo about colleges (unlike some ppl I know IRL and the general mommy internet zeitgeist). Like, college admissions is the cherry on top of the big old competi-mommy sundae we've been dishing up since our sneauxflakes learned the alphabet, but a name brand school is not worth the stress and might not be a good fit anyway. Every campus is not right for every kid, and college is EXPENSIVE. From where I sit, it is all about ROI and where kids are going to have the best time. (Best time like meet great friends, learn from subject matter experts, live somewhere beautiful, not best time like party 24/7 until they get kicked out). A giant public university might be an awesome fit for some kids who are able to distinguish themselves in a huge crowd and go to class even though no one notices, while others might benefit more from more attention from their teachers and more accountability. I want my kid to go to the best school for him not the school that sounds the best when people ask where he is going, you know?

Sooooo, you heard it here first. We are going to enjoy the college admissions season, learn lessons that will benefit our other kids down the road, and not get in the way of our kid making the best choice for his future. AND I AM NOT GOING TO FREAK OUT.

In my head, Harry is this age anyway. College is YEARS away.