The BSC Legacy – Book 4: Adolescence Passing
By: CNJ
PG-13
4: College Apps
Common College Question:
Where do you see yourself ten years from now, professionally and personally?
Kristy:
That's a good one. I'd love to say President of the U.S. of A., but highly unlikely. And anyway, we'd be only twenty-seven...eight years too young for the presidency. But seriously, I'd like to have graduated from college, have a decent job, maybe in the executive field of a national chain and be starting my own business. What I'd really love, is to be CEO of a business eventually and to have five or more kids. I've always dreamed big and will continue to do so in adulthood. After all, the Baby-Sitters' Club here in my town, started with a dream I had and my friends and I have been running it successfully since seventh grade.
Mona:
Most likely a veterinarian, since I love animals. By twenty-seven, I hope to have graduated from college, which I'm sure you've heard that from most, if not all of your applicants. I'm seriously contemplating graduate school. I'll probably have to start off as an assistant in a vet's office, but I hope to open my own practice within a few years after college. As for personally...it's still too early for me to tell.
Mary Anne:
Where I'll be at twenty-seven...I'll have a Master's degree in secondary education with a minor in psychology. I'll be teaching, preferably in a New York City high school. I don't expect the first few years to be easy, as most teachers who start off have a rocky start. And if for some unforeseen reason, teaching doesn't pan out, I'd be a counselor, either a personal one or a high school counselor. As for personal...that's a bit more complex...well, I'll still have the great friends that I have now, even though we'll most likely be at different colleges, but I hope to expand the circle and make more great friends...I hope to eventually have kids once I have my career established...the jury's still out on whether I'd be married then or not, if that's included in "personal."
Claudia:
Hopefully, an artist. Once
I get this year over with, then get through the first years of college
and all the grueling English and history courses out of the way, I can
concentrate on what I'm REALLY meant to do, be an artist. I'm toying with
the idea of freelance art, but I also know I'll need something steady to
support myself until I get my art off the ground. I've also like the idea
of using my artistic abilities to advertise. So, I'll most likely, after
college graduation, work as an assistant in an art museum or store until
I get my real career off the ground, either in freelance or have my own
business in advertising. Personal...hopefully, have kids and of course
I'll still have the friends I do now, adding however more I make in college
and in the art field.
Another Common College Question:
"The more things change, the more they stay the same." Name and explain examples of how this quote relates to your life.
Stacey:
Interesting quote. I remember hearing it in an old movie my friends and I saw at a sleepover. It was the movie The Color Purple with Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey and boy did Mary Anne Spier and I cry and cry throughout most of that movie! All right, as to my own life...over our high school years, my friends and I saw many changes...we started ninth grade and with that our adolescence just bursting out right along with pimples, greasy hair and branching out in new interests. Still, we continued to have our Baby-Sitters' Club meetings three times a week and to be available to Stoneybrook parents whenever they needed baby-sitters. The changes became even more apparent when a clique threatened to take over SHS in tenth grade, then the landscape of SHS changed in the fall of eleventh grade when we got a lot of new students and Abby started the Operation Today's Good Youth where most of us sent in letters to the editors protesting the negative image portrayed in the media of today's youth. And it changed things here at SHS! Kids got more courage to stand up to the clique and the clique weakened and eventually broke up. So now our school is no longer under the shadow of that clique and my friends and I are older and wiser. Still, our friendship hasn't changed and even our different personalities are still mostly the same. I hope that's one clear example.
Anna:
Boy. Wow. I remember hearing that quote sometimes. I guess it's about all the changes our high school went through with overthrowing the In clique and watching each other go through puberty and everything and getting older and taking on more responsibilities and having more freedoms, but also all of us sticking by each other. And also, when my twin sister Abby and I were younger, one example is my family...our dad died in a car crash when Abby and I were nine. I can just imagine what a gaping loss and adjustment that had to be for Mom. It sure changed our family forever. I was afraid we'd drift apart, but a year later, we took a vacation to a remote island and celebrated New Year's Day there and I found out that we were still very much a loving family, Abby, Mom, and I. Even Dad would still be with us in spirit, if not physically. And best of all, Mom still was the take-charge, competent loving woman I'd always admired, despite going through a terrible loss and Abby still loved her sports and I still have my love of music, which I intend to make into a career.
Abby:
Good quote! I can think up a million examples, but it'd take three million pages and just as I don't have the time to list them all, I'm sure you and your admission staff wouldn't have the time or patience to read it all, esp. since you're probably swamped with applications galore. So, I'll just focus on the social changes our high school Stoneybrook High went through in the larger changing society. I guess things started to change once my friends and I hit high school and went through the usual changes of adolescence. Then once we got the ball rolling with Operation Today's Good Youth (I hope some of you got the chance to read our letters in the newspapers in November 1999), things really started moving fast for SHS. The In clique slowly lost its credibility, so they couldn't bully the other kids, we had a ton of new students that year, so I'd say our junior year was most pivotal. It made all of us think, not only us students, but teachers and parents too. And for my friends and me, our parents stood by us all the way. It showed us that even though the school was changing and in turn, changing society, our folks were unchanged in their support of us kids. And to make it more worth it, our principal, Ms. Silverbein stood by us all the way and for that, my deep gratitude toward her will never change. And now, on the cusp of yet another change, our graduation from high school in the spring and us going off to college, I have a feeling my friends and I will grow and mature, but our basic personalities won't change. And for that I'm grateful. I hope that answers your question adequately. To find out more about Operation Today's Good Youth, visit the website www.otgy.com and read some of our letters.
Dawn:
As for my life, our lives. I tend to think of my life being linked with that of my friends. Well, one thing is that I've been through many changes in my life including my parents' splitting up when I was in seventh grade, then each of my parents remarrying, then my dad and stepmom having Grace, my new sister. Other changes...becoming friends with Mary Anne, who would later become my stepsister, moving from the West Coast all the way to Connecticut in seventh grade, then moving back west in eighth grade, then moving back here for junior and senior year of high school. I have two sets of swell friends...one group in California and the other group here in Connecticut. All of us have gone through enormous changes, including divorce, growing up, deciding what to do with their lives after high school. With all the change, I'm so glad some things haven't changed like our friendship and my family's love. And my stepsister and I have gotten even closer throughout the years, even as we all struggled to adjust to stepfamily life. I remembered how heartbroken she was when I moved to California in eighth grade. Truth is, I'd missed her just as much. I've heard of friendships sometimes drifting apart when one moves, but I suspect because Mary Anne had that fear, we both made an extra effort to keep in touch and to make a point of keeping each other in our hearts even though we were far apart. And it worked. All that changes we went through and my bond with my stepsister is still as wonderful as it was in eighth grade. And once I came back to Connecticut, we'd pretty much picked up where we left off and that extended to the rest of my East Coast friends, despite the fact that it was junior year and our high school was going through many changes.
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Kristy:
We spent the next several
BSC meetings sifting through college applications and giving each other
pointers. It was hard to believe we were applying to college.
"Next year we'll be adults,"
Claudia peered over her application to New York U.
"You know what that means,
right?" I asked with a grin. "Freedom. New responsibilities."
"New paths in life," Mary
Anne carefully folded her applications to Staten U. and Arizona U. and
put them in envelopes.
"Getting our careers off
the ground," Stacey added, giving one of her essays one last check. I myself
was applying to Fellowdean U. in New York City, Stamford U. here in Connecticut,
Roster U. in Maine, and Connecticut U. Bit by bit, we were slowly training
the next generation of the BSC. Charlotte and Karen had come to a couple
of our meetings and by January, we'd get a group of our former charges
together, at least four if not more, and really start with the training,
so they'd be ready by the time us original BSC members left for college.
All of us planned to go away; none of us were staying here in Stoneybrook
next year. I felt a tingle of excitement as I looked over my essay for
Fellowdean U. one last time, then put it in the envelope.
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Dawn:
"So you're thinking of Arizona
U. next year?" I asked Mary Anne about a week later after we'd done our
homework. Mary Anne lay down on the bed and nodded.
"I applied to Tucson U.,"
I sat down next to her. "Hey, if we both get in those colleges, we'd still
see each other every so often."
"Sounds good." Mary Anne
sat up and kind of leaned close to me. "I'm getting knots in my stomach
just thinking about the admission process. I just hope when they see my
transcript, they can overlook that C minus I got in home ec in freshman
year."
"I'm sure they will," I
told her. "You're a great student and involved in a lot of things. I doubt
they'll turn you down for one mediocre grade."
Mary Anne gave a nervous
kind of laugh. "I don't even think a C minus is a mediocre grade; it's
a bad one."
"Hey, some kids get worse
than that and still get admitted to decent colleges," I stroked her back.
"I hope you're right," Mary
Anne's hand went to her mouth and I could see that she was struggling not
to bite her nails.
"Hey, you applied to Staten
U. and New York U. right?" I remembered Mary Anne telling me that she'd
always wanted to live in New York City as an adult.
"Yeah," Mary Anne nodded.
"Mona applied to Staten U. too. If we both wind up going there, I'm thinking
of asking her to room with me."
"Good idea." I nodded. Mary
Anne and Mona are both shy, so I might be good for both of them if they
at least knew each other.
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Abby:
Anna started to bite her
nails a little as we sat on my bed. We'd been talking about college and
everything and had sent in our applications.
"We'll still see each other
often," I told my twin sister as she ran a hand through her thick dark
curls, so much like mine, except my curls are long. I'd applied to Stamford
U., New York U., and to two colleges in New Jersey, Dexter and Ellis. Anna
had applied to Trenton Music Academy, New York U., Connecticut U., and
Syracuse U. "In fact, if things pan out and we both wind up in New Jersey,
maybe we could even rent an apartment together."
"Good idea," Anna lay back
on the bed. "I'm going to miss this place next year."
"Yeah, me too," I lay next
to her and we looked up and the ceiling and said little things back and
forth. It was already late October and I had the feeling this year was
going to really fly by. "I have the feeling Mom's going to really miss
us too."
"Yeah..." Anna nodded. "I
hope she isn't too lonely here once we're gone."
"We'll keep in close touch,"
I said softly. "Thank the stars for e-mail."