Shannanigan's Search for More...

I brought my little brother to school today I feel like it's show and tell, lol.

My mother has just been worried because he doesn't seem motivated to do anything after high school. He seems to think that things will just work themselves out and he'll magically be given a job as a journalist or something that involves writing. He seems to think that he'll write a book on his computer and then suddenly...poof!...it will appear on the bestseller shelves of Barnes & Noble once he's done.

She wanted me to bring him to college to meet some people and show him what it's like. He seemed intimidated by the idea of "college;" he says he thought it was all about waking up early every day for classes and staying up late studying every night and spending class time frantically scribbling notes from a lecturing professor. I showed him how he wasn't really all that right; I let him see my schedule, I had him meet a couple of my professors, and I took him to a couple of freshman courses to get a taste of how class goes. He seems more excited now...especially about the idea of having a dorm room and deciding on his own schedule (meaning he can pick what times he goes to class).

I'm also going to take him to one of my classes this afternoon. At the moment, he's sitting with me in the Writing Center while I wait for some students to come in for tutoring. If they come in, he'll get to see what kind of help he can get if he needs it. I've been having him go through the course catalog to see if any classes look cool to him. He seems excited about the communications courses involving radio broadcasting and journalistic writing. I'm happy for him.

I ask him now and again if this seems cool to him; if the idea of coming here seems less scary, and he says yes. He says he feels smart walking up and down the halls among college kids, and sitting with me and my friends in the cafeteria, and being greeted and treated well by the professors I introduce him to. Then I ask him how he thinks he'll pay for it all, and he gets a little nervous. He says he's been saving, but he knows it's not enough. I ask him if he's been keeping his grades up enough so that he has a good chance at winning local scholarships, and he hangs his head. I tell him to just keep it up, that there's still time for improvement, and to make sure he studies for the SAT's.

I don't know if a week from now he'll be looking back on today and still feeling like college is cool. I don't know if he'll think writing dozens of scholarship essays and stressing over his grades will be worth the work in the end. For all I know he may decide that McDonald's isn't all that bad when compared to all the work college may ask of him.

I hope for his sake, though, that that's not the case. I know he's got it in him to do well, and I know it won't be easy if he doesn't have my mom pushing him...but he's got to grow up one day, and his high school graduation is fast approaching.