Insanity

This college app thing is going to make me a crazy woman. Actually, this WHOLE college thing is going to make me a crazy woman. If I'm not in the loony bin by the time Aidan goes off to wherever, it will be nothing short of a miracle. A big one.

When did colleges come up with the ludicrous idea of having kids write essays to distinguish themselves from other applicants? I mean, seriously -- you have a jillion kids applying to your university. This translates (at least at UT) into two, possibly three jillion essays. Someone has to read them all. So the kid has to write a hugely amazing essay to even get noticed. Out of jillions. And what about the poor souls who have to read all those essays? Don't you think some of them get a little glazed after awhile? Do they just sort-of start throwing essays on random piles -- the "awesome" pile, the "not too bad" pile, the "ho-hum" pile and the "don't even bother" pile must get pretty mixed up after awhile.

And dear Aidan -- he could have avoided all this mess (at least at UT) by being the valedictorian of his class. UT automatically accepts the top 8% of students in any given school. The top 8% at Aidan's school is the top person. There are ten kids in his entire graduating class. He is the salutatorian. Second place. And while we are immensely proud of him for achieving that status, and feel it is just as amazing at a small school as a large one ... this means he must apply to UT and get in on MERIT! Honestly, I can't see where that would be hard, but it's just such a huge hassle.

Then our pastor the other day said he wouldn't send a kid to UT because there were a couple of kids from our church (or at least kids he knew) who had gone to UT and ended up renouncing their faith. Presumably this was because of philosophy classes. That isn't something a parent of a Christian kid who is considering UT wants to hear. I reminded the pastor that this is why we've been having him over on Monday nights to go through deeper materials than they get in youth group to be sure that Aidan KNOWS what he believes, knows WHY, and understands why it makes more sense than anything else. And I believe Aidan does know that. I feel pretty good about him. I also know the Enemy is pretty sneaky and doesn't always do things the way we might expect, so I'm not taking Aidan's strong faith for granted. This kid is getting lots of prayer. And I'm sure there have been plenty of Christian kids who have gone through UT and come out the other end not only unscathed, but even stronger in their faith. (As well as kids who have gone to other schools who have not -- it's not just UT that chews Christians up and spits them out).

Ugh.

And it's only (nearly) September!

Lord, keep on giving me the strength for this! And please let us know exactly where You want Aidan to go, and give him favor to stand out from the other applicants and be accepted!

I'm going to bed.