Teen Talk
By Sarah Coe-Odess | March 15, 2011
The life of a high school senior is full of stress. There’s the obvious anxiety-producing question of where I will be next year. Will I be accepted at a college that will be right for me? If I don’t get into one of my dream schools but instead to schools about which I am less excited, will I have sufficient wisdom to choose the right place for me? Or will I listen to other people’s opinions, rather than to my inner voice? Will I miss my friends, my family, and the home in which I have grown up?
It is a highly anxious time. My GPA has been finalized, all applications and recommendations have been submitted, and alumni interviews have taken place. Now all that’s left is waiting. I thought I’d feel impatient. Some friends complain that if one more person asks where they want to go and what they expect to major in, they might just lose it. Kids I know are exceedingly strung out by stress.
Teenagers deal with stress in different ways. Many work out, play sports, or listen to music. Some anesthetize themselves with alcohol or drugs.
I am embarrassed to admit that I spent the spare time I had all of last month obsessing over finding a dress for an upcoming school dance. I spent each Saturday and Sunday for a month obsessively shopping for a suitable “dressy dress” for my school’s Semi-Formal. I brought my mother along, because she’s great about putting garments back on the hangers and can zip hard-to-reach zippers. Also, while friends may err on the side of politeness, put my well-mannered mother in a fitting room and she doesn’t bother. A shake of the head or a gleam in her eye makes her an easy read, if I want her opinion.
After my exhaustive month of hunting, I ended up buying five garments, with the understanding that I would return all but the one I selected to be “the dress.” What surprised me, though, was that the dress I fell in love with was the first purchase.
My mom speculated that I insisted on searching for so long to distract me from other anxiety-inducing things in my life. She wondered if I made the quest for the perfect dress so all-consuming that I did not have time or energy to focus on other stresses in my life. I told her that I’d never heard anything so absurd. I was living in the present and not worrying about college applications or future roommates or how often I will be calling home next year. She said, “My point exactly.”
I looked around the bedroom that I will soon leave and tried to decide what I should do next. My college adviser had requested that I give him my top five college choices, and I needed to write a thank you note to an alumna interviewer I had met with the previous week.
But I opened my computer and started looking at formal gowns I might need to wear to the prom.
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