So I’m calling this “The Crush.”
I think this nicely sums up the way most people feel about the college admissions process and the college experience itself. We fall into a deep infatuation with a potential future alma mater, maybe even many, and work ourselves into ulcerous, sleepless fits trying to find a way to get them to notice us and give us a chance. Oh oh ohhhhhh but not too much…don’t want to seem stalkery! And then there’s the other kind of crush. The physical weight of it all. The pressure of expectations for yourself, your parents, your peers, the weight of the finances you might be asked to conjure up in order to appease your hungry crush, and the crush of information in the form of mailings to your house, stories in the media, tweets, op-eds, rumors, gossip, and outright bullshit.*
It’s crazy, isn’t it?
So all that said, allow me to contribute to it all with some more media for you to feed your ulcer! I only hope the things I get to put out to you can serve to bring some calm, to entertain, and maybe to act as the podcast equivalent of a motion sickness bag; that thing that you take long, deep breaths into while you smack around the turbulence.
A wee Davin Sweeney steadies himself against the barrier keeping the hordes of proud family at bay. (2003)
A long time and a few pounds ago, I went to college. A whole bunch of us have. And they were “the best years of our life.” Right? Yes and no. For instance, the USC campus is the finest piece of real estate on which I will ever live. Unless I take up residency at the Bellagio, there will never be a place with so many fountains and palm trees that I can call home again (I grew up in rainy-ass Portland, Oregon, so I bailed before I was consumed by the mold). On the other hand, I made lots of stupid decisions in college that still make me cringe, and yet I’m really glad I made those stupid decisions; they’ve helped me become the good person I am today. Therapy is helping me believe that last sentence, but by and large I believe it.
I was lucky enough to be admitted to my dream school, thanks to a little hard work on my part and a fortunate admissions interview with Jonathan Burdick, and after I graduated, he hired me. Twice, in fact. I deferred admission and went to three totally unfamiliar parts of the world during a gap year, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I worked for the University of Rochester for about ten years, recently as a regional admissions counselor based in New York City. I visited schools, conducted interviews, went to college fairs, talked to families, and read (a whole lot of) applications. I now work as a college counselor for Collegewise, which affords me the opportunity to get closer to the student side of all this, which is the side I think we could all stand to keep closer in mind.
I dug in to college and wrung it dry for every experience I could. I was totally at home in college, and with the exception of a brief wander through the desert of employment in other less-exciting fields, I have tried hard to never leave college, in some way or another.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gained an appreciation for the complexity of college in the US and in the world (the ways phenomena like race, class, gender, and religion play a role in shaping this experience), and a deep empathy for the tightening space through which families feel they are allowed to view this process (colleges gleefully announcing record-breaking volumes of denials each year), and the tightening space in the doors that are open to those worlds (how the hell can you guard against being one of those denials?).
While I agree that it’s a big deal, and that the feelings of stress and panic are real (if not always justified), I don’t agree that it’s irreversible, and that the opening in the door is only a crack. This podcast doesn’t intend to give you the key or password to unlock anything, as many grownups out there claim to provide, but rather to flesh out the enormity of opportunity, the depth of complexity, and the crazy swath of the human experience that this period of our lives encapsulates.
Hope you enjoy!
-Davin
WORDS OF WARNING:
- This podcast is being produced on my own, and is unaffiliated with my employer, Collegewise.
- *Sometimes there might be swearing.
Acknowledgements
NICHOLAS VRANIZAN / VRANIZAN DESIGN
My friend Nicholas Vranizan is as talented and accomplished as he is untrustworthy. However in this instance, “The Kid” has come through huge for The Crush by providing technical, design, and emotional support. He has recently launched his very own grownup company that has to pay taxes and everything, so if you have a need for motion graphics that will make you wonder if someone put something in your coffee, Vranizan Design are your people.
DAVE LAWSON and J.B RODGERS
Dave: Bass, guitars, high melody synth, high vocals matching high melody synth, backup vocals, mixing.
JB: Drums, droney wavering synths, backup vocals.
These are the fine young men who put together the Crush’s theme music, and they did just because I’ve fooled them into liking me. If you’re in the Ferndale, MI area and you need a man to make your wedding/bat mitzvah/corporate Christmas party/car commercial/podcast music to sound as if it was speaking directly to your soul, Dave Lawson is your guy. J.B. works in the child-rearing business, raising his daughter Azalea while working from home, and receiving much needed relief when his wife Lisa returns in the evening. He is my hero for doing this. If you’re in the Rochester, NY area you need any advice on how to do this yourself, or if you need a drummer/singer/guitarist, or you need help identifying the best album in the respective ouvres of Opeth, Gov’t Mule, or Drive By Truckers, I’d be happy to connect you.
KIM BLISS
While not a woman, Kim Bliss is of English descent. In spite of this and his incurable addiction to the University of Oregon Ducks, he also helped me make this spectacular website that you are feasting your eyes on right now. He works as a high school teacher, which, god bless him for that, but he also gets summers off and has blown thousands of taxpayer dollars on “professional development” excursions to places like China, the Galapagos Islands, and I hear is gearing up for a trip to the moon with Space-X. He also works as an assistant to his lovely wife Kristen’s spectacular event/design/fabrication company, Bird Dog Creative. Among their extensive list of clients are two of my favorite human endeavors of all time: Deschutes Brewery and Nike. I mean seriously, look how rad this stuff is that they make.