I hope someday to be as wise as teenagers. They just know everything, don't they?
At least that is how my Daughter feels....at the ripe old age of 18, she knows it all.
She knew that she didn't need to waste her time applying to those Honors programs at the colleges she applied for, since she was sure she wouldn't need any additional financial awards to attend said colleges.
She knew that she didn't need to waste her time writing any optional essays on her college applications, because again, she wouldn't need any additional merit awards some of those aforementioned essays may have qualified her for.
She knew that she didn't need to waste her time searching out and applying for merit based scholarships that weren't connected to the specific schools she hoped to gain admittance to. Surely, the schools she applied to would offer her more than ample piles of dough to cover any costs her parents college fund didn't.
She knew her superior brain, her sterling grades, her class rank, her ability to shine on standardized tests(the SAT) would have the powers-that-be at each of the colleges she applied for throwing scholarship money at her feet to get her to choose their school.
Even though her parents, who have the wisdom of having gone through all this themselves back when "dinosaurs roamed the Earth", told her she had better apply for things, write essays, and any other thing asked of her by the colleges' powers-that-be, to take advantage of any advantage she could uncover to find scholarships and/or grant money.
So guess what? It turns out, she didn't know Jack!
Her dumb as dirt parents saw this day coming like a roaring freight train down the track, but she didn't heed our warnings.
To Be Continued.....
Sluggy
When my daughter was 23, she was complaining--loudly, long, and bitterly--that her 17-year-old sister thought she knew everything, that she would not listen to her, that she had been through the same things and knew better than her younger sister. I let her rant, and when she stopped for breath, I reminded her she treated me like I was an idiot when she, herself, was that age. The older daughter audibly caught her breath and let it out. "Did I do that?!" How quickly they become brilliant and then forget. You, Sluggy, will be much more brilliant as the years go by. I just can't wait for the next chapter.
ReplyDeleteSluggy, I have a sister who was like that. She ended up spending many more years in school (most of her adult life), while living with my mother, whom she convinced to leave her everything when she died.
ReplyDeleteYour kid is on to something... the daughter who went to school, finished, got a job and got married... ended up getting nothing of real value from mom. Now that mom is gone, sister is an attorney and the rest of the family look at me as the under-achiever.
Well, at least she got a good husband!
I remember those wonderful, panicky days of trying desperately to convince our son to fill out extra essays, apply for every scholarship he could, to please actually continue studying in his senior year because it does matter, etc. All fell on deaf "I don't care, things always work out" ears :) Now he's at least getting nervous about the loans he's thinking about taking out for the next school. Apparently something has finally sunk in (a little... maybe...).
ReplyDeleteI wish you and your daughter all the best as this drama will continue to play out. Isn't parenthood grand?
I am so glad Samantha didn't take anything for granted. She applied for everything and wrote many, many essays. Thank goodness! She believed us when we we would not be paying for school.
ReplyDelete