The slog begins in October.
In August, it’s easy to ignore the deadlines. They’re two whole months away. The noises of daily life can overwhelm the ringing bell of the college deadline. But two months pass quickly, and now it’s two weeks till the early admission deadline for Georgia Tech and UGA. Common App starts to display the days left till the application is due, adding to that alarm. This is the slog of October, adding a new major variable on top of the delicate balance of work-sleep-play we’ve established after four years of high school.
When I submitted my applications on October 13th, I didn’t feel much of anything. I had stayed up late working on them and peer-reviewing my application, so I sat there and felt a slight sense of relief. Even though I had a massive pile of work left to do, there was relief in knowing that, for a brief time, my life could feel normal again.
Then, as the rhythm of life starts to come back, November deadlines start to loom. As I’ve observed in myself and my friends, apathy starts to set in around this time. Where essays would once go through the revision cycle at least five times, my November essays had three drafts each. Was it laziness? Absolutely. To justify it a little bit, I just wanted my life to feel back to normal.
This time, having submitted a half hour before the deadline, I felt more relief. It’s a desperate want to just be done and not have to think about it; it’s the feeling of throwing away a finished to-do list. But we’re not done. Many of us still have regular decision schools and they come up around December to January. The variable will be back, but we just expect it now.
It’s the slog of a senior.