When I was a senior in high school and applying for colleges, I could not escape from people asking about the status of my applications.  If it was someone from school, it was “UVA or Virginia Tech?  Mary Washington or William and Mary?”* If it was someone from church, it’d be “How’s the BYU app going?”  So coming to Puget Sound, a small, private liberal arts school 3,000 miles away, was a bit out of the box.  Hipster, even, one might say.

As a fellow senior was kind enough to point out recently, there are now fewer than two hundred days left before graduation.  This is only mildly terrifying.  Over the summer, I went through a freak-out phase and, during a slow week at work, made a spreadsheet of potential future plans: grad school options, companies and nonprofits for which I could see myself working, volunteer opportunities.  This was a fantastic idea and I highly recommend it: even though I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing, I look like I do, which then annoys my older sister, and that’s always nice.

Last week, Career and Employment Services held a career fair.  My usual reaction to events like this used to be “Psh, not a senior, don’t have to go.”  (Don’t do that, kids.  Never too early and all that.)  Anyway, during another slow week at work over the summer, I read a bunch of articles with headlines along the lines of “Half of Recent College Still Relying on Parents for Money, Study Finds.”  That is not a situation that I like.  So I’m now pretty motivated to attend CES events, and so far it seems to be paying off (keep in mind that there are also articles like this and this).

My other sister, the younger one, is in the throes of applying for college.  So, even though unemployment rates are scary things, this has been a nice reminder that things could be worse – at least at Puget Sound we have CES, which is significantly more helpful than my sister’s high school advisor.  Job applications are intimidating, but aren’t as labor-intensive as the Common App and don’t cost $50+ a pop.  And I have reason to mock both of my sisters.  Life is good.

*To be fair, I did actually apply to Mary Washington and William and Mary.  I wrote W&M an essay correcting the grammar of the essay prompt.  It was a fantastic essay.  They wait-listed me.