| I had just turned 18 two weeks prior. I had just won my Club’s Junior Golf Championship. I grew up in a nice home, in a beautiful small town, Weston, CT.Suddenly, I was 800 miles from home on the Clemson University campus, living in a small dorm room with a complete stranger as a roommate, and making all my own decisions. I was in no way prepared to succeed in this situation. After two years, I joined the USAF. I have a simple explanation for it. What applied to me then still applies to most first-year college students. Up until the moment I was dropped off at college, everything in my life was planned for me. I was a passenger-in-life adhering to the flow, timing, and direction of others. The day I began college, I was no longer a passenger; instead, I became the driver. I set my own schedule and created my own direction. Nothing was predetermined for me. Figuratively speaking, I didn’t know how to drive, and I didn’t have a GPS. That brings me to one of my favorite quotes, from Yogi Berra- “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.“ There are reasons why the national freshman dropout rate is 25%, with another 25% at risk of academic probation. It’s all predictable, just like car accidents would be if 16-year-olds were given a driver’s license without taking a course or passing a test. The transition from high school to college is a significant point in a young person’s life. It’s the moment they go from being a passenger in their life to being a driver. Since there aren’t any courses for this, like Driver’s Ed, families need to handle it themselves. In most cases, they default to letting it play out on its own. That’s too risky for me. CollegeLogic students receive training to prepare them for this transition, even though they don’t know I’m training them. My students’ college success is equally as predictable as other students’ college struggles. From passenger to driver, how will your child steer their path forward to navigate the bumps and curves of college life? If you’d like them to drive well and avoid the obstacles, let’s talk. |
