College Attacks!

Going into my junior year of high school, one word keeps invading my life: COLLEGE.

"Should we go on a college tour?"
"What colleges are you looking at?"
"I only did that so I could write it on my college app."
"I want to go to college really far from here."

With college two years away, why am I being bombarded with all of this stuff from parents, teachers, universities, and friends?

Well, it's unfortunately not that long from now that I will have to decide which colleges I want to apply to, take the ACT/SAT, write my college essay, go on college tours, and complete applications. The college admissions process is (not surprisingly) long and detailed, and as much as I don't want to start thinking about the "c" word, I can't afford to be in denial anymore.

College is supposed to be a great time in life, and I know that it will be a great time in my life. I also know that I will make friends and have a good experience no matter where I go. The issue is getting there.

It's pretty overwhelming to think about all the work that I have to do and the decisions that I have to make before getting there. But I'm confident that if I use my resources and do some serious research, I will get there.

In the meantime, I still feel like I have a million things to do and not enough time to do them. I feel like I have missed a ton of opportunities and already feel that I am coming too late in the game.

If you are finding yourself or your teen in a similar situation to mine, I have some good news for you! I have been doing a lot of research lately to make up for my previous lack of work, and I have found some great websites and tools to help us both out.

Here they are:

     http://www.cappex.com/ for help finding scholarships, organizing college trips, connecting with colleges, and so much more

    

http://www.kaptest.com/ for help with test prep (as horrible as it is, test scores are important)

http://www.collegeboard.org/ for help planning, getting information, and test prep (be sure to sign up to get one SAT question emailed to you everyday)

http://www.zinch.com/ for help finding scholarships and paying for college

http://www.eprep.com/ for test prep

http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/30/college-application-tips-lifestyle-education-admissions.html for an article about tips for applying to college


Of course, this is a very basic list of resources that I personally have found to be very helpful, and I hope that they will be of some use to you. Some of them are highly acclaimed websites, and I know that they will have more information than you will even want to read! Good luck with your college application process! I'm sure you will be hearing more about mine in the near future!


P.S. thanks to the following website for the image: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=books&start=216&um=1&hl=en&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4TSNA_enUS391US400&biw=1366&bih=613&addh=36&tbm=isch&tbnid=liI97SgU0INSWM:&imgrefurl=http://publishingcentral.com/blog/tag/childrens-books&docid=NrnSxYmyIOlMJM&imgurl=http://publishingcentral.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/books_l.jpg&w=300&h=267&ei=FzoMULLoFub30gHr2dHRAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=322&vpy=288&dur=2457&hovh=212&hovw=238&tx=145&ty=148&sig=104007103313082174013&page=9&tbnh=132&tbnw=148&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:216,i:129

The Perfect Body

I'm sorry to say that I haven't been blogging much lately, as you can probably tell. It has been so super busy, but at the same time, I haven't been all that busy. It's summer. School's out. I shouldn't have to do anything (except summer reading, which I have barely touched, for the record), but I've been feeling like I have a million things to do: reading about colleges, cleaning my room, studying for the ACT/SAT, working out, driving, grocery shopping, reading this book, reading that book, watching this movie, the list continues. After storing up so many things during the year that I said would have to wait until summer, I should be excited that summer has finally come. But I've quite overloaded myself.  I'm trying to remind myself that I have the time to do everything I have to do AND everything I want to do.

Lately, I have found myself doing a lot of lounging by the pool. My sister and I could hardly make it a solid five minutes of tanning, though, because it's just too hot! But as I lay there in my one piece bathing suit, sweating under the sun that's determined to kill me, I notice that every other girl by the pool is wearing a bikini.

I look down at my navy one-piece, which I bought with my friend at the mall a few weeks ago. I liked it then. I still like it.

But when I look at all the other girls with their seemingly perfect beach bods in cute little bikinis, it's a lot harder to like my own body in its one-piece. I think a lot of teenager girls (and guys. Let's not pretend they don't see other guys' muscles) suffer from what I call "I want that" syndrome. "I want that" syndrome, pretty obviously, is the issue of seeing something great and wishing you had it. It requires a bit of low self-esteem, self-consciousness, and, you guessed it, jealousy. This time of year, the "I want that" syndrome most commonly applies to wanting someone else's body.

Of course, this syndrome isn't limited to poolside teens. All kinds of people can suffer from it in all kinds of situations. As a parent, the best thing you can do is remind your daughter or son that the most important thing is to be healthy and that she/he doesn't need to look like everyone else to be beautiful. As long as she/he exercises a normal amount and eats healthy foods that contain the right nutrients, she/he shouldn't be worried. However, it's hard for us, as teens, to realize that. We want the perfect body that's advertised and that everyone seems to have. And chances are, we're not happy until we get it.

If you see signs of an eating disorder or descructive mindset in your child, it's important to get help. Don't underestimate the severity of the effect of the "I want that" syndrome. Get help.

So as your child goes off to the pool this summer, remind her that you love her the way she is and that she should love herself this way, too.