Travel Season - Part Deux

Let let travels begin (again)! I've gotta say, I've missed traveling a whole lot more than I ever expected to. It seems I've got the travel bug now (though I still have no desire to go anywhere outside of North America). Here's the line up for this season's journeys:

1. New Hampshire/Boston

2. More Boston

3. Los Angeles

4. Philly (....don't get me started)

5. Lots of local fairs sprinkled in

Definitely not as many trips, but there's less recruiting to be done and I've got quite the personal travel schedule of my own with four grad school interview weekends taking up the bulk of my time. I was supposed to head to North Carolina again (back to the Triangle!!), but I had to ditch the trip for some grad school work. North Carolina would have been way more fun, but I suppose I've got to plan for my future.

Also new this season - I won't be traveling alone much. Actually, only to 3 local high school fairs. The rest of the time I will be with 2-8ish colleagues and on my Los Angeles Trip, the fabulous Dr. D will be joining me (though not for the work portion, just some sight seeing like A did last semester in San Fran). Things are going to be really different - bunking up, car sharing, and being on someone else's schedule are all things I am not 100% sure about, but I'm taking the opportunity to roll with the punches and go with the flow. I have no desire to be the anal retentive one in charge like usual. I'm just going to enjoy the ride!

Wish me luck!

The Long Months

For the past few months, I've been reading application files. And let me tell you, there's a lot of them. I didn't blog about them, because frankly, the job isn't all that exciting, but I do enjoy reading the essays. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, some make your jaw drop - but on the whole, most make you yawn. Here's some of the topics I've gotten to read about, A LOT:

• Deceased family members - parents (those are the hardest to read, and sadly, there's a lot), grandparents, siblings (also really hard), best friends, and some pets as well
• On a similar note, sick family members. Lots of cancer and a smattering of weird diseases I've never even heard of. I end up reading a lot of Wikipedia articles and Google imaging things - I wouldn't recommend the latter; we find some gross pictures.
• Vacations that changed their world - who knew a family vacation to a villa in the Italian countryside or a posh resort in Caribbean could change someone's whole entire existence so much?! To give them credit, there are a lot of decent vacation stories, lots of service trips too!
• Way, way, way too many Eagle Scout essays. Just about every kid who wants to be an Engineer was an Eagle Scout - or ran cross country, often both! Only one applicant wrote about how much he hated Eagle Scouts. I give him credit for being honest and for keeping me awake. Kudos.
• Interestingly, I've read more essays on Catcher in the Rye than any other book. Kids love Holden Caulfield for some reason. Personally, I hated it. I think I read the sparknotes. And I'd like to sparknote their admission essay.
• The worst are when people just submit some random paper they had to write for a class. I don't care about some random book you read, or some silly research you did on WWII. It doesn't say much about you, and after all, you are the one trying to get into college, not Hitler.

Those are probably the most used topics for an essay. Every once in a while though, one comes along, out of the blue, and it gets you thinking. I really like looking at the GIANT stack of files on my desk and believing that one of these manila folders is going to contain the next great story. Here's some of the more interesting ones:

• One student from Africa who watched both his parents get murdered and then was abducted into slavery and injected with heroin. The kids become addicted and become dependent, therefore, don't run away. This kid, somehow, ended up in the US, and is all well. God bless him, that's about all I can say!
• One girl made a list of the 25 things you wouldn't learn about her by looking at her Facebook. I gave her points for creativity.
• One male student was sexually assaulted by another male on his athletic team. The coach, principal, and his parents wouldn't believe him - causing him to slip into a deep depression.
• One kid had no father figure so he joined a gang and got into some bad stuff. Scary.
• Sadly, more than a couple of students wrote about their parents beating the pulp out of them. Those always break my heart. One kid was locked in a closet by his step dad and forced to urinate all over himself. Makes me cringe.

My all time favorite though - Drum roll please?! This one young lady who wrote her essay about losing her virginity. It was quite graphic, a little vulgar, and had way too many details. She thought she got pregnant. But "by the grace of God", she found her way to the Plan B website and everything was all set.....T.M.I?!? This is your admission essay!!

A close second goes to the young man who wrote about his relationship with his very large athletic cup, or "Cupsie" as he calls it. At first we thought he was bragging about how large everything was - until he described it as a "large umbrella covering a small ant". Word for word, people. You can't make this stuff up. What ever happened to making yourself look good in your essay? I didn't have the pleasure of finding this essay, but the whole office read it...at least once.

I'd say in the past 4 months, I've read over well over 2,000 essays (wow, that seems really high - I did the math 4 times though, promise!). Some are really long, I think I had a 6 page one (and no, I didn't read the whole thing) and some are just a tad more than a paragraph. Some are very carefully written and others look like the person scribbled it right into the box on the form, never letting another person proof-read it or hear it. Please, take more than 3 minutes to write your essay...

It breaks my heart to deny applicants though - even the kids with D's and F's or terrible SAT scores. I've cried, I'll admit it. I've fought for students, searching for any loophole I could. More times than I'd like to admit to, I've apologized aloud to the file in front of me belonging to a student who didn't get admitted. As if the student could hear me or it makes less of the enemy in their eyes. (I have also congratulated files and spent a moment daydreaming up the next scenario - the kids gets their letter, yells, tears of joy, runs to their parent, talks about it at dinner, puts it on Facebook...ya know, the usual) I often joke to my friends and colleagues that if I could, I'd open my very own university, just of kids who need someone to give them a chance. It would be chock full of sob stories, low incomes, and first generation college students. Ones with disabilities and rough childhoods, abuse, eating disorders, and death, but all of them would be students who want nothing else but to learn and grow. At U-, I wish we could just take people based on their heart and their character. How much can a standardized test actually tell you. Doesn't how badly you want it and how hard you are willing to work to get it count?

Maybe it's because I am a first generation student who had parents who pushed me daily to score higher and study harder to make more of myself than they had. For that, I am eternally grateful. Getting me to do math homework before playing outside was a battle somedays, and not every first generation kid is so lucky to have that undying support. Or maybe I'm just a gullible sap or a middle-class white girl with too much privilege and guilt for my own good. I just want everyone to have a chance. In putting down those "deny" files, I have to remind myself, these kids will go else where. They want college and someone, somewhere else will want them. They'll be okay. And so I move on.

If nothing else, I've learned a bit, improved my vocabulary (it makes you feel really stupid when you have to look up words in the dictionary), and overall, gained some faith in humanity and our future. An impressive amount of students do community service and Best Buddies seems to be a popular organization to join. Quite a few young feminists and people actively fighting for equal rights of every gender, race, and sexuality. More students than I expected seem to be breaking stereotypes - chess club and football captain? Cheerleader and founder of SADD? Awesome, just awsome. Maybe I watch too much TV or am jaded by some morons I've met along the way, but reading these essays gives me some hope for our society.

Best wishes, applicants.

Someone's rooting for you on the inside of the brick fortress, don't worry.

Good News for All!

The other day I found out that my contract with U- Admissions is being extended until April!! I'm pretty excited, not only to have a job and something to do, but to be on campus regularly and get to see more of the admissions process. Right now, I think I'll be working 4 days a week, reading applications and decided who gets in and who doesn't. Sounds like a big job to me! That's the good news for me.

The good news for you, as promised in the "Good News for All" headline, is that I will be traveling some more in the Spring. Not many trips - probably four much short ones, but since I'll be out exploring the world, I'll keep writing the blog. I might even write a little through out application season, if things are interesting that is. Be sure to check back semi-regularly. Nothing daily, for sure. But maybe once a week or so.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I think I am going to start up a new non-admissions related blog. I really like blogging and writing. It's a little therapeutic and gives me some purpose in life. I still need a good topic to blog about, but we'll see about that. For access to the new blog link, ask me. It won't be posted here.

Until later,
-J

Ten Seconds Left on the Clock

Tonight feels like New Year's Eve. Each passing hour feels like another second gone down in the count down in slow motion. Tonight is my last night in a hotel. My travel job officially ends in less than 24 hours. No more schools, no more fabulous rental cars, no more giant king sized beds. Tomorrow at 4pm I should find out if my contract has been extended to be an application reader. Of course, I really want the job, but I am not getting my hopes up. Right now is like the final seconds of the big game. The clock has 3 seconds left, the ball is in the air, and the crowd is silent, waiting to see if it makes it in the basket. (Look at me and my sports references!) The decisions have really already been made; nothing that happens from here on out can really change the outcome. We just have to wait and see what happens.

At the moment, I am rather tired and not feeling particularly reflective or in touch with my emotions, so I will not be using this blog entry to discuss my final wrap up notes. I'll save that for a day this weekend, so be sure to check back later on. I will, however, say that since this travel job is pretty much over, it means that my blog is as well. When I first started this, I had no idea I'd have a solid reader base. I'm pretty impressed with myself that I have written well enough for people to even want to read it. I've been told the entries have gotten significantly better and more enjoyable as time has gone on. So Thank You!

Quite a few people have requested that I continue my blog even after my travel is done. The truth is, I truly enjoy writing it and I enjoy people commenting on it. I'm worried there won't be enough content for a separate blog or a continuation. After A LOT of consideration, I think I have decided on starting a brand new blog - one that will be updated less frequently. I will do a one month trial run. If there is enough to discuss, I will stick with it. If not, like a bad tv show, it will be taken down after a few episodes. I really like blogs with topics, not just ones that ramble on about a person's uneventful day, so I need to settle on a topic to write about. Please forward your suggestions! I have some life goals for after this job, but they aren't really things I want to blog about.

As for the fate of this blog, I plan on getting it bound into a hardcover book. I'd like to keep it as a souvenir of my journeys. Someday the grandkids might want to know how grandma crawled across a bathroom floor!


Here's some stats on my viewers - 1,608 views in total from the following countries. I'm impressed! Though, I know know what anyone in Singapore would want with my life. It's not that exciting! Maybe it's a good thing I always refer to my school as U-.....

USA: 1364
UK: 43
Canada: 22
Russia: 21
Japan: 20
Poland: 19
Singapore: 19
Germany: 16
S. Africa: 13
Kuwait: 10

My Stint as a Bad A$$

I am a good girl. I always have been. I don’t really have any desire to break the rules and I am probably every parent’s dream. I can only hope my children are as good – they have high expectations to live up to. I never snuck out of the house, never drank underage or tried any drugs. I never lied about where I was. Never got a secret tattoo or hid a piercing from my family. People used to make fun of me because when everyone was answering “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” I’d always say I got yelled at by a mall cop for going up the down escalator when I was 14. It’s the truth. Never stole a pack of gum, never really ran away, never watched an R rated movie until I was 18, never was a part of a secret fight club. Never even done a donut in a parking lot. I remember when I was about 4 I used to enjoy poking my fingers through the plastic wrap on the meat at the supermarket and I recall unintentionally unthreading a few shirts at stores while pulling at the pretty sequins .Sue me. So I ruined less than $100 of things in my life. Anyway, you get the point. Good girl. Sometimes I am so good that I worry people will doubt my goodness. No kid is this good – surely my family must be suspicious that I am hiding something. I can assure you Mom, I am not, nor have I ever. I’m just a good kid!

Now, I also grew up in the era of Laguna Beach and the OC. Everyone on those shows always had a bonfire on the beach. Living in a small town no where near a beach, I never got the opportunity to have a fire anywhere buy my backyard or a camp ground. It’s been on my to-do list for years, but every time I go to a beach, there are always signs that say “No Fires”. Being the rule follower I am, I never lit one, mostly in fear of going to jail! A couple weeks ago I was reading a travel book on San Francisco and they mentioned having a bonfire on the beach. Instantly, it went on my SF bucket list.

I had forgotten all about it until A and I went out to a restaurant which over looked the Pacific. It was late, and therefore dark, and way way out in the distance I saw little flames. Are those fires? I asked him. Yup. I’m sure A thought my enthusiasm was ridiculous, but he agreed to appease me. Living on the shoreline his whole life, A has seen his share of beach bonfires and was not really excited. But being the good person and dedicated friend he is, we drove over to a gas station, bought the Sunday paper (that one has the most paper!) and a cheap lighter. We got to the beach, walked about 300 feet away from the other fires and decided to set up camp. I had brought a blanket and some towels from the hotel with us, so I set up a place to sit while he worked on lighting the fire. In the car was a box of Coke Zero cans and a cardboard box of U- viewbooks. These books aren’t cheap. Like $3 each. But at the end of the trip, if there’s less than ½ a box left, I am supposed to recycle them. If there’s more than a box, I am supposed to send them back to school by mail. But the box was half way and I only had 3 schools left, so I decided the books would make for great kindling. Of course I saved some books for the other schools (too many, actually), but they did, in fact, work well for the fire. We found some left over wood from someone else’s fire and A got to work on lighting it. It took a long time. And flicking the cheap lighter so many times hurt our thumbs pretty bad. I don’t know how people smoke. Nothing would catch on fire, but then all of sudden it went. I took about 50 photos. Way too many of the fire and A wrapped in a hot pink blanket, trying to light it and “be the man.”

Now here is where the story gets interesting. I was told by A that I had to write a blog on this, even though he has his own blog. I told him he could have the story, but apparently I’d make it sound more fun. I’m not going to exaggerate it, though we joked about how the story might unfold in my sitcom life. Here’s the real version:

So we’re huddled up on this tiny towel, looking at the stars, listening to the waves crashing on the beach, and having some good conversation, when I see this spot light shine on some of our other fire people. The light was coming from a cop car in the parking lot. “That’s a cop! Crap!” I know the book said fires were okay at one beach, but I couldn’t remember if that was the beach we were on. We didn’t see any signs earlier, but why else would the cop be there!? Not knowing what to do, A suggested we run. I couldn’t find my shoes, but I found them. He fumbled with the cardboard box, which I told him to leave behind, but he didn’t want anything to get traced back to us and my name was on the box. We jogged back to the parking, leaving the fire burning. But what else were we to do? We didn’t even have a water bottle to pour on it and the water was a ways away. Besides, how would we even get the water from the ocean to the flames? Our cupped hands? Right. We didn’t think this whole thing through all the way. I felt bad, but we got into the car and sped off, hoping the car wouldn’t chase us. I had no shoes on and had no idea where we were going, but there was no time to fight with Garmin for directions. We just drove about 20 minutes and figured it all out later, laughing the whole way about my stint as a B-A. It was pretty exciting, not going to deny it. And we got to cross off another thing from my bucket list. The list is big, but this California trip crossed off quite a few things! (Special shout out of thanks to A)

Here’s the more adventurous story, exaggerated as A was hoping for:

One night A and I decided to have a bonfire on the beach. The fire was huge and blazing hot so we were laying next to the fire, scantily clad. The cops drove up, shined their big white spot light on us, and we panicked when they saw the whites of our eyes. We had no choice but to run. The smoke was so thick it could keep out of sight, for a while. I couldn’t find my shoes, or clothes, in the sand, so A suggested we just run as fast as we could. We got to the car, but my keys were still back at the beach. It was quicker to smash the window and turn it on using the hotwiring we had installed, just in case something like this happened. We sped out of the parking lot, ran a red light, swerved to avoid hitting a car, and burned rubber as we took the corner. Fortunately, I am a great driver and this style of driving was nothing new to me. The cops searched for a while, but there were others on the beach with fires, so they left us and we sped off into the night. We drove all the way to Los Angeles, 7 hours south, before we decided it was safe to turn around again. We decided the next night we would try again, that is if the whole beach hadn't gone up in flames from the huge fire we left in the dust.