Clinton Township Newsletter

1 O c t O b e r 2 0 1 4 1. Immediately go to secret place where you keep an extra house key. 2. Remember that about a month ago you decided to relocate where key is kept and now it truly IS a secret. 3. Make a slow circle around house perimeter and try all doors and first floor windows for possible entry. 4. Get Real! There is no way you could climb through a first floor window. You might actually die from dangling. 5. Proceed to street where you look hopefully at neighbors' homes. Would someone be willing to provide emergency rest room facilities and, perhaps, a cool drink of water? 6. Get Real! Why would neighbors hang out at home on such a sunny Fall afternoon. 7. Note that the sunny day has taken a turn for the worse and what you thought was falling leaves is now a steady wet sprinkle of rain coming from a darkening sky. Has anyone ever died from exposure on Charlotte Drive? 8. You remember why God made cell phones so remove yours from your purse. It's covered with lint and a melted York Peppermint Patty... 9. Which wouldn't be so bad, except the battery is as dead as last Spring's Daffodils. 10. Remember you have a whistle somewhere in your Honda glove com- partment. If you blow, will someone respond? Or will the nearby pooches begin to howl? 11. The rain is increasing in intensity and your rain coat is in your house. Which is securely locked. 12. Maybe a car will drive by and you can flag it down by standing in the middle of the street to plead your case. If, of course, the driver is an elderly gentleman who offers you a lollypop or asks you to jump in and help him find his lost puppy, it would be best to run like hell in the other direction. 13. All resources exhausted you comtemplate a temporary refuge in the less than appealing garage. At least it isn't raining in there. Except for maybe one rather large leak which you hadn't noticed before. 14. Relax (?) in garage, sitting precariously on a broken recycling bin. All you can do now is wait for the guy who comes to cut your lawn next Tuesday. His cell phone will be working and he may have an extra Snickers bar in his pocket. Won't your life be less difficult to maneuver now that I've shared the above suggestions? Since 1982 "Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." – William Shakespeare While I hope the younger kids of Clinton Township are enjoying their Halloween season, I know that many of our high school seniors have something scarier in mind – college applications. You call it Hal- loween – we call it College Early Application Deadline Eve (or one of them). Now that two of our kids have successfully flown the nest, some of the parents of this year's high school seniors asked me to write about it, so here are 13 thoughts about the college process. (I'll spare you the other 87). Please keep in mind, these are just my opinions: 1) It will all work out – I promise. Let this be your constant mantra. 2) North is highly regarded by colleges. Do well there, and you'll go far. 3) RVCC is a really good school. One of our neighbor's kids did 2 years at RV, 2 years at Rider, then got her first job at Goldman Sachs. Can't beat that. 4) The information sessions at any college you visit are invaluable. I recommend you bring the younger kids along before they enter high school, so that they understand what colleges and universities expect. 5) "Undecided" is perfectly okay. I heard this from every single school we visited, Ivy league, big state universities, tiny little private schools – they're all okay with, or even happy with, a student who goes in undecided – because hopefully your child will figure it out at their school. That's success for them. 6) Expensive private colleges with their huge endowments are not a bad way to go. They can make an unaffordable tuition pretty affordable, indeed. 7) I thought of college visitations as just "window shopping". My daugh- ter and I decided to go and see schools without even thinking about the numbers. After getting a decent idea of the variety out there available (for us, all East Coast) she was able to hone-in on where she wanted to apply. 8) My son applied to two schools, my daughter: seven. Personally, I think anything under 10 seems right. Some of those applications are a lot of work for your child. Also, there's always the possibility of too many choices. 9) Our family rule is that one application must be to a NJ State school– after all, we're already paying for them, and we have many fantastic ones. 10) My two older kids originally wanted to go far away, and ended up at schools within 45 minutes from our house. The benefits to being close to home are many. However, I went to college about 950 miles away from my childhood home (from Florida to NYC). It forced me to truly grow up and become my own parent. So, I could argue the merits of both distances. 11) KIDS – work really hard. Not to add to your pressure but, you really need to bring it*, especially during Junior year – the money will follow. 12) PARENTS – Listen to everyone, but keep your focus on what's best for your child – and only your child. He/she isn't the kid down the street, or their best-friend, or your boss's child. What makes those kids and your kid happy could be two vastly different things. All that matters is your child. 13) The entire application process is just that, a process. Have your child focus on achieving two or three small goals per day. Before you know it, it will be a done deal. One morning I asked my daughter about some of those daily goals and she answered exasperatingly, "Can we NOT discuss colleges for just one day?" Well, fast-forward one year and she's really happy at her school. So, while I apologized to her for being a (loving) nag, her hard work (and my nagging) was well worth it. I think she would agree. Since 1982 C L I N T O N T O W N S H I P N e w s l e t t e r ® O c t O b e r 2014 J u l i e F ly n n, e d i t o r Good luck!–Julie Fl�nn *In other words, make the best grades you can.

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