You Can't Win If You Don't Buy a Ticket

Every time I lament about not winning the lottery, I am reminded, "You can't win if you don't buy a ticket."

We are adopting that mantra this week as the Austin household officially declares "College Application Week" – basically our way of setting deadlines for Carter in a non-nagging way. Not that anyone nags around here!

More than a week ago I had suggested we get the applications done last weekend. Suggestions don't go far. This past week, it turned into, "The essay WILL be finished so we can submit applications this weekend."

First deadline met!

An odd feeling hitting the "submit" button for Carter's first application. This is really happening? We are at the stage of our lives where our baby is applying to college? Sigh... Still not ready.

He knew for sure he'd be throwing his hat in the ring for the schools we visited: UW-Platteville and University of Minnesota, both colleges with strong and reputable engineering programs. We officially submitted both of their applications today.

He still has a few "long shots" in mind. Even though it costs a minimum of $44 per application, depending where you go, we are encouraging him to give these other schools a try. You can't get accepted if you don't apply, right?

Besides, he can pay us back when he gets a great engineering job!

So we'll have a little bit more work to do this week to get those additional ones done. The good news is that now that he has a "professionally edited" essay done, he can change that up to match criteria needed for other applications. So the hard part is done. Hopefully by the end of the week. No, definitely by the end of the week, we'll have those off on their way as well so we can just sit back and wait... for 3 weeks, 3 months, whatever it takes to hear any news. We'll just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

In the meantime, some tips for you middle school or early high school parents who really don't want to think about this already...

What made this application process go pretty quickly is that I started a document back in Middle School that included anything and everything Carter was involved in from school sports and summer baseball to band awards in solo and ensembles, volunteer work and any type of recognition. Every little thing. I just kept adding to it with every new change since then and we now have a handy list of those "extra curriculars."

While college apps mainly care about high school activities, the sooner you start the running list, the more naturally updating it becomes habit. So there you have it, there is one EASY part to this process.

However, I suspect my E.N.D. (empty nest denial) will not get any easier. Ever.