Mother on the Menu

It’s Time to Recognize the Profession

My high school senior recently applied to college. When I told him I’d proof his application, he considered this a kind, but unnecessary offer. He’d written the thing, pored over it, read and re-read, wrote and re-wrote.

It was done, all locked in, nothing to change, tweak or add.

I mean, sure, if I wanted to read it — if that’s how I wanted to spend my time — I could.

I assured him this was a valid use of my time and also just good practice — to have a second set of eyes on the whole thing, not just the main essay, but also the short answers.

In life, the short answers will get you every time.

So we struck a typo-only deal as the time for elevating thoughts and exploring further had passed. The application was due the next day.

Sure enough, I found a short answer sentence — I think it was the response to something like tell us why you’d be the best college student and/or human this school has ever seen in a quick 50 words or less — that ended in the middle, something he’d meant to double back on, but hadn’t.

But what truly stopped me were the answers to some of his parent demographic questions.