College deadlines are inching closer and applications have become a staple of the nightly senior workload. But with all the answering and re-answering of questions, essay topics blending together, and last-minute testing decisions, one would hope that the Common Application would make things simpler.

Ever since I first took my first Air Force 1 clad step into the halls of Uni High, I have heard seniors complaining about the stress of the college process.

Last Thursday, I visited the University of Chicago. It was the culminating event of my college admissions process, and marked the end of several months of worrying.

But while my college courting certainly caused me a great deal of grief, I can’t say that the actual application process was too stressful.

Here at Uni, everyone takes the PSAT both sophomore and junior year.

Finally, after months of anticipation, I have finished applying to college. I completed the Common App, wrote supplemental essays, and even got teachers to write recommendations for me (Thank you!). In general, I'm much less busy this semester. Now, what am I supposed to do with my time?

Having recently completed my last college application essay, I impart to all interested underclassmen the following timely tip: Beware the invincibility of spellcheck.

I’m kind of crazy about the holidays. I have multiple boxes full of costumes for all different holidays — other than just Halloween. I have light-up pins and springy headbands for the Fourth of July, sparkly shirts and reindeer ears for Christmas, clover-print shirts for St. Patrick’s Day, and egg earrings for Easter. Then, of course, are the Halloween costumes and trinkets.

May will be the last month of my high school career, and I can’t wait to finally graduate and go off to college at Washington University in St. Louis.

To me, my life has never been very exciting. All of it mostly consists of doing homework, hanging out with friends, playing chess, and sleeping.

When I entered my senior year, I found everything about classes to be basically the same except for one major difference: while I carried my backpack home with me every night, I never opened it.

For the last week or so, college admissions decisions have been pouring into my e-mail and mailbox. I won't go into any gory details, but suffice it to say that I neither got rejected from every school nor accepted to every school I applied to. I'm very happy with my acceptances, content but slightly disappointed at my wait-listings, and not overly crushed by my rejections.