The Truth About April
April is a confrontation with the truth for students
I have to remind myself every April, this is my student's first and only April in college admissions. The fear they feel is real and unknown. The financial gaps feel like a chasm to them. The solutions I rely on are unknown to them. The assurances I give them feel hollow.
Every April, the truth comes crashing down. Scholarships do not rain down from the heavens even if they had applied to hundreds. Being a good student or a great student or an involved student did not translate into significant merit aid. The system gaslights them into thinking they are not enough. That they should have done more. That student debt is avoidable, you just weren't good enough to avoid it.
It is where the dreams of college collide with the reality. It is when goals turn into debt and debt turns into future burdens. It is when the light in a student eye starts to dull. It is when the tears, the students and my own start to flow.
It is when I know students deserve better, parents deserve better, we all deserve better but I have to accept that none of us will get what we deserve.
April is a fight. A fight you do not always win. It is a fight you go into knowing you can lose but a fight you enter with the intention of going down swinging.
I am tired of what April demands of me, what it demands of our students and what it takes from us both. April does not care though, April will continue whether I want it to or not