“Take a deep breath. You did it! Now that January 1st has come and gone, all of the applications are in, and you can relax.” After I submitted my last application, coincidentally to Tufts, my college counsellor told me these exact words. But, before I finish that story, I want to take you briefly into the world of quantum mechanics and talk about a topic that I simultaneously love and hate. Uncertainty.
You may know, that we cannot know the exact position and speed of a subatomic particle simultaneously, and if you didn’t know, now you do! If we were to measure the exact position of an electron, it could be travelling at any speed whether that be 0 or the speed of light. And, if we were to measure its exact speed, it could be anywhere in the entire universe. This is known as Heisenberg Uncertainty, and it’s a bizarre experimental result that sums up the “strangeness” of the subatomic world. You’re probably wondering how this relates to college applications in any way, so let me get into that.
For months, I had agonized over college applications. After a turbulent and disappointing early decision/early action cycle, I just wanted to get in somewhere. From May until December of 2013, college applications were my top priority, and once they were done, I had no idea what to do with myself. You might say that I was very uncertain (see what I did there.) I think a lot of people go through this. Once the dust of application season settles, all you can do is wait for the decisions come back. In this time, my life was full of uncertainties. Where would I go to school? Would I be happy there? Would I be successful? For the longest time, I let these questions dominate my life, and I never fully realized that the future was wide open. I knew exactly where I was, so I could therefore be doing anything. So, if you’re in this same well of uncertainty, my advice to you is to relax and enjoy the freedom of not having to fill out lengthy applications. Enjoy your friends, teachers, and families. Celebrate your last few months of high school. The future will still be there when you’re done. If you want to read more about what to do in the immediate aftermath of clicking “submit,” you should definitely check out Sophie Martin’s blog! So until next time, I’ll leave you with this. You will go to college; you will have a good life. Just take a deep breath.