By MIRANDA HOFFER
Special to Kingston Community News

It is crunch time at Kingston High School.

By now, most seniors have decided what schools to apply to and are racing to finish applications, or in some cases, start them. You have forms to fill out, essays to write and non-negotiable deadlines. It is brutal.

The application breaks you down into categories: English-speaking, white, 3.2 GPA. To the colleges, you become a candidate if you have the “right” classes, the “right” test scores and the “right” extra-curricular activities. Sometimes it just comes down to who you know. Having a good recommendation can set you apart in ways your transcript may not have. Ideally, a college candidate will have exemplary conduct in and out of school, stellar grades and is an asset to the community.

The past four years of schooling becomes condensed into letter grades and how many records you set.

Applying for college makes you doubt yourself. You ask yourself if you have really accomplished that much. Maybe you should have taken the S.A.T. a fourth time, shooting for that 2100 again. You begin comparing yourself to others. Yes, you may have taken more AP classes than most, but you know a student who is fluent in French.

Instead of focusing on you, and making your application as eye-catching as possible, you get distracted by other students’ accomplishments. The reality is you cannot be the best at everything, but hard work will always level the playing field.

The most difficult part about applying to a school is the essay. The writing prompts range from describing your ultimate failure to the person you’d most like to meet. In 1,500 words or less, you are asked to convey what kind of person you are, both academically and socially, while answering the initial question. How do you make a complete stranger feel as though they know you in a few paragraphs? In a way, it’s easier to write soulfully to someone you will never meet, like confessing to a priest.

The essay cannot be written in a couple of hours. Instead it becomes your food for thought for several days, even weeks before you feel ready to write it. You can only do your best.

Applications have been submitted and for now, all we can do is wait for spring.

Editor’s note: If you are a Kingston High School student and would like to write for the Kingston Community News, email Kipp Robertson, krobertson@soundpublishing.com.