While attending family gatherings– or really any event where someone over the age of 40 is present, every senior seems to be bombarded with one of the following questions: what are your plans for next year? Do you know where you’re going? Know what you’re majoring in?

I felt like Lady Gaga on a press tour, giving the same spiel over and over. It consisted of me telling them about how I was still waiting to hear back from eight schools (give or take– I honestly can’t remember), mumbling something about law school after, and then quickly turning the conversation onto them, asking them about how their dogs were or something.

While Harvard commits (ahem, Will Marsh) view it as small talk, and feel comfortable answering, the majority of the senior class feels overwhelmed by such questions. Senior year is hard; you are trying to apply to schools or figure out an alternative career path, play sports or complete a hobby, and maybe even actually try to do some of your school work (thank you, senioritis).

In a community such as EGR where everything and everyone seem to be going 100 miles per hour, I personally enjoyed answering questions like, “how are you?” and “what is going on in your life right now?”. It felt almost refreshing when someone was interested in how I was “in the now” rather than forcing me to contemplate a made-up bs response for what I planned on doing for the rest of my life.

Adults don’t seem to realize that times have changed since when they applied to college. Our parents applied to maybe three or four schools and knew where they were going by the end of October. Students nowadays probably apply to more than five schools and won’t know for sure where they are going until April, if they are applying to colleges.

While most family members seemed to pick up on how much I did not want to talk about college, others kept going.  

My response was simple: no. I do not know. I barely know my plans for the weekend and I can promise you I have I don’t know my official plans for the following 40 years of my career let alone the next four for my college career. Thank you and goodnight.