Breathing a sigh of relief

May Day.  For many it's a traditional spring holiday.  For those of us in the college admission and counseling game, it's the day by which college bound students must make their college decision.  Us Admission Counselors bust our butts recruiting students, reading applications, working late nights and weekends, answering endless questions (or wondering why in the world these students aren't asking us questions), texting, emailing, coordinating programs, bending over backwards to make students feel connected to and informed about the benefits of our particular institution.  The last couple weeks of April are fraught with anxiety: students anxious about choosing the "right" college, parents anxious about their students choosing the "best" college (or the cheapest college!), high school counselors anxious about students choosing any college, and admission counselors anxious about students choosing THEIR college.  Those of of on the admission side of things stalk the mail daily or hover in the records room to hear how many deposits we received on a given day, hoping that on May 1 we can say definitively that we "made our class" (meaning that we have achieved the numerical goal given to us by our President and Board of Trustees that allows us to meet our operating costs for the following year).

Last year, May 1 arrived at my institution with a whimper.  The weary Admission Staff felt battered and bruised as we fell short of our goal - by a fairly substantial amount.  We were sad, depressed, and anxious; worrying that we (or others on our campus) would lose our jobs due to a budget shortfall related to lack of tuition revenue.  It was not a banner year.

This year.  Ohhhh this year.  This year was different.  This year we seriously pulled out all the stops: answering phone calls at all hours of the evening, sending texts until our hands were cramped, doubling the number of program days (and therefore weekends and evenings worked), and helping kids navigate flight cancellations, so that on May 1 we were sitting pretty with shit-eating grins on our faces.  And boy were we, because blew our goal OUT OF THE WATER!

And so here it is: May 3.  No one is panicking.  No one is scrambling.  It is FINALLY spring in Michigan.  And no one has the ability to focus on anything other than feeling relieved and accomplished, and wishing we were outside enjoying big ball of sun we see through our windows.  Coupled with the fact that I had time in my schedule to attend yoga today (rather than getting up at 5:15 to do it by myself), this lack of focus has me consulting my little book for a Pearl of Wisdom.

Number 255
"'Who looks outside, dreams.  Who looks inside, awakens.'" -Carl Jung

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