| I've been home due to illness during this process, but running a small business on the side that hits its peak during October-December. Life was crazy, but in a good way. I share LTS's perspective on this -- I got the same kind of joy out of the application process that she does from her client meetings these days.
I paid attention to deadlines, put up a master calendar (mainly for my benefit), made a couple of spreadsheets that neither of us ever looked at again, and printed labels. I took him to Fed Ex and the post office so he could fill out the labels and figure out how to ship things. DS and I talked a great deal about what he wanted and what schools would provide those opportunities -- that has been an ongoing conversation over the past two years. He formed his list a year ago and has barely deviated from it. The schools he thought would be 1, 2, and 3 then are the same schools that are 1, 2 and 3 now. We talked a lot about his essays -- but those were his work and his voice. That much was clear. Some I never saw until they were done.
Midway through the application process he got some big awards that involved missing school and spending much extra time preparing for same. From my end, I had to really watch the time management end of things to keep things from falling through the cracks. On the other hand, these goodies wound up making the difference for him in his apps, so it was all good.
If I were working, would I have quit my job? No. Am I glad I had the time, flexibility and health to be involved? Heck yes. This has been a wonderful way to spend DS's last year at home, and he has been a joy to be around.
DS2 is a soph, so we will go through this again in the not-too-distant future. I may be working then; it depends. That is currently under considerable hot debate. |