March 18th, 2026
People often say that junior year is the worst year of high school. While I agree to a certain extent, senior year has been rough. I cannot begin to fully express the mental toll college applications can take on someone. I’ve done a lot of difficult things, but the past six months of my life have been some of the hardest. The college application process took up a lot of my life. If I wasn’t actively working on an application, I was unintentionally stressing myself out about my future. Listing out every award, accomplishment, volunteer work, and extracurricular from the past four years was an extremely daunting task. On top of that, having to pour your heart out and fit the most important parts of yourself into 650 words is a daunting task for anyone, but especially for me.
I had to try to squeeze every story about my endurance in the face of chaos into 650 words. I had to write about things that made me feel uncomfortable to dig into, all for a stranger to read and ultimately decide if I was good enough for their school after analyzing my not-so-special GPA and just slightly above-average ACT score.
After all of that, I am excited to share that I will be attending Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro campus as a member of the Honors College! I plan to major in Public Relations with a minor in Management.
I know Georgia Southern doesn’t sound very impressive, and at first, I wasn’t happy about my commitment. Once I visited the campus and found my roommates, things changed. Suddenly, I was excited after feeling disappointed in myself. While I got into some of my top picks, such as Bates College, James Madison University, University of Missouri – Columbia, University of South Carolina, and the University of Denver, I don’t want to be in debt until my 40s or beyond. College is so incredibly expensive, and I don’t want to put the burden of going out of state on myself, or more importantly, my father.
With all of the upcoming changes in both my and my father’s lives, I don’t think going to a college where I would have to take out loans and have him co-sign on them is a smart decision.
Throughout all of the constant change in my life, my father has been my constant. It sounds so corny to say, but in a certain sense, he’s my best friend. Moving out and not always having my silly bald dad is going to be difficult.
Even when I wasn’t excited about going to Georgia Southern, my dad was excited for me. He’s always been there to cheer me on. I really started to feel better about things when I saw him parading around our house wearing his “Georgia Southern Dad” hat.
Additionally, another big change: I don’t plan to go into journalism as my career after college. Since my freshman year of high school, I was so certain that my path would be in broadcast journalism. While I still have so much love for the industry and plan to get involved with broadcasting at Georgia Southern, I don’t think it’ll make me happy long-term.
With the rise of AI, I have no clue what jobs will exist in five or 10 years down the line, especially since I enjoy the production side of things, such as editing, scriptwriting, and producing. I fear that those will be the first to go. AI has already advanced so much in the area of video editing. There are other reasons I’d prefer to keep to myself for why I no longer want to go into journalism after college, but AI is the most prominent.
Navigating the past six months has been absolutely terrifying. It felt like I had to define my entire future at 17 years old. After many conversations with my father, I understood that I can change my major a few times, and that a lot of people don’t always go into a career in their field of study. I am still nervous, but I’m nervous in a good way. I know things will work out.
Although this wasn’t what I initially envisioned for myself, I am so incredibly excited for this next chapter of my life. Thank you to everyone who has listened to my rants regarding college over the past six months. Especially to my dad for helping me understand that everything will work itself out, even if it isn’t exactly what I planned.
Despite my initial feelings about my commitment, I know that even beyond college, I’ll be happy. Regardless of the career I end up in, I know it will be one that I find fulfilling and enjoyable. At the end of the day, whatever that career ends up being, I know I have my support system to fall back on.
After much thought and reflection, I can finally say this:
I am so excited to call myself an eagle this fall and be a part of the Georgia Southern Honors College!
Go Eagles!
March 18th, 2026 : Atlanta, GA
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Stella St. Clair 