[Scene: The D’Angelo kitchen at 6:00 in the morning. MOM is sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and drinking her coffee. Enter Rebecca STAGE L]

Rebecca: Hey, Mom. Do you know what today is?

[Mom nods]

Rebecca: It’s Sunday, March 7th. The day after March 6th. The day before March 8th. And the twenty-fourth day before March 31st.

[Two seconds later]
    

Rebecca: Hey, Mom. Do you know what tomorrow is?

[Mom nods]
    

Rebecca: Well, it’s Monday. And it’s March 8th. You know, the day after March 7th. Which happens to be today. Tomorrow (Monday, March 8th, in case you forgot), also happens to be the day before March 9th.
    

[Two seconds later]
    

Rebecca: Hey, Mom. You know what else? It’s the twenty-third day before March 31st.
    

[Mom nods and sips coffee. Two seconds later:]
    

Rebecca: And, hey, do you know what Tuesday is?
    

Mom [looking up]: Rebecca. If you keep doing that, it’s going to be a very long month. For both of us.

    

This has (unfortunately for my family) been the content of the conversations (or the one’s I’ve started, anyway) in my household for the past week. It all started this past Monday when we left February behind and dove straight into the depths of March, more commonly known as College Acceptance/Rejection/Waitlist Month. (According to the CollegeBoard’s calendar.)

    

On March 31st I will find out my collegiate fate. And, as you may be able to tell, with less than a month to go, I’m chomping at the bit. Actually, I’m surprised, at this point, that I have anything to chomp on. I would have expected that by now I would have already chewed right through that bit with rabid fervor. (And believe me, that’s what I feel like doing.)
    

Though it has been difficult, I have finally accepted the fact that the end of the month isn’t going to come any quicker than time (or Taylor Swift, who, I think, currently controls the universe) allows.
    

Thankfully, I have plenty of things to keep me busy in the mean time.
    

Like, counting down the days until I find out the colleges who want me and those that don’t. And, you know, writing blogs about how I anxious I am to hear back from them.
    
    

In all seriousness, though, I’m currently finding myself in a bit of a busy spot when it comes to senior year work (hence my absence for the past few weeks). When I was a freshman, I expected my senior year to be a cakewalk because, well, that’s what I was told it was going to be. By my junior year of high school, though, I realized that wasn’t going to be the case.

Looking back at the past few months, I have decided that my senior year has been the busiest and most stressful– but, at the same time, the most rewarding – year of my high school career.  In most high school circles, junior year traditionally takes the "Stressful to Beat All Hell" award. This is because junior year is the most important year of high school. And, conveniently, it is also the year when most students take their most difficult courses.

Pressure + difficulty = stress. (Especially if some of that stress is derived from taking a certain difficult math class. No pun intended.)
 
That being said, the momentum gained or lost during junior year is only meaningful if this momentum is carried forward into senior year – and that’s when it really counts. The classes a student takes during his senior year (and how well he does in them) demonstrates his capabilities and success as a student. This makes senior year grades as important as any of the grades that he’s turned out prior to this year.

(On this subject: Unless a student applies to a school Early Action or Early Decision, most colleges will not make acceptance decisions until the grades from that student’s first semester of his senior year have been submitted to the college. If his grades take a nose dive after he has been accepted, a college reserves the right to withdraw its acceptance offer.)

When that senior year work is combined with all the extra stuff exclusive to senior year (i.e. applying to colleges, completing a Senior Project, applying for scholarships, preparing for graduation, fundraising to offset costs for senior-year activities, and, you know, making that final decision about where you’re going to go to college…), you have one busy final year of high school.   

Which is not to say that that’s a bad thing. The senior year work load that I’m experiencing is not necessarily painful, only somewhat surprising and very different from anything I ever heard about senior year until I actually became a senior. I mean, there are definitely inherent benefits in all of that "extra stuff" that you have to do (especially that Senior Project thing; but more on that later).

    

And, you know, one of those benefits is that all that work helps keep your mind off things you might be anxious about.

    

Which reminds me – did you know that today is March 7th?