Paying for College 101

This is my first attempt to write copy!  I thought I'd pretend to advertise my own college prep course, because I keep thinking...maybe I can market it and sell it as a way to help first-generation students!  (that could be in another marketing email--how this is written for them!)

Have you had that moment late at night, when you're looking through your finances and realize that while you might be able to start saving for retirement, you haven't really started saving for college?  Not for you...but for your children?!  It's easy to do...starting a career, starting a family, buying a house, figuring out life as it comes, and suddenly...WHAM!!  Here you are--just several years away from having a child attend college.  Maybe you have a daughter just starting 9th grade, and you know in 4 years she'll want to go to a great college just like her cousin did.  Or consider your son in 11th grade, who has good grades, but possibly not high enough for scholarships?  Is the worry in your chest growing, and you want to scream out...or go bury your head in the sand and pray it somehow goes away?

Instead of doing either, know this:  you can still find answers.  And a lot of them.   Your daughter can go to that college and sit in the classes and go to the football games.  Your son can go to the university and explore careers and find his own path.  

You don't have to get mad or give up, you can get help.  You can plan and pay for college with a step-by-step program that leaves you saying, "I know what I'm doing!" instead of feeling lost, confused and angry.  The best part is that you don't have to find them on your own, you can use a tried and experienced college-planning guide to help you. 

That's where this all-new college-prep course comes in.  This is a course that is easy-to-follow for students and their parents that wonder

• What grades do I need for college?
• When should I be looking for colleges?
• How can I find colleges out of state?  
• and so many more questions!!

The course includes lessons of information specific to searching out colleges and scholarships, and then assignments to help you build your own successful path.  

In case you're thinking, "that's for people that have a lot of money...we're just trying to get college paid for!"  think again...this business is built on the model to help students from middle-income families get to and through college.  This business is for first-generation students to reach college without signing up for numerous loans.  Instead of looking at others and thinking, "how?"  you'll be the one telling others, "this is how our son is paying for college".  

If interested in finding out what other parents know...and you can, too...then click on the link below to receive this new and up-to-date "Plan and Pay for College" Course.  We want to be sure to help YOU with getting the answers you need.   

When you realize you're "that" type of student (not the good type, by the way...)

I've been plugging through my course, sitting down every day at my desk and doing the work.  I've printed the handouts and created a folder, and checked out books from the library to read from the suggested book list.  I'm watching videos and taking notes and actually enjoying the material.  But I'm still feeling overwhelmed...while also going as slow as molasses through the course (or so it seems...maybe I'm just dealing with the fact that I'm at the beginning, instead of at the end of my last job where I knew all the info and was the in-house resident expert on college admissions).  Not to sugarcoat it though--they said I was the expert, and then treated me like crap and second-guessed me and micro-managed me and talked behind me.  So even though I knew my stuff, it's so awesome to not be there anymore.  But that means, I'm beginning again.  And I'm beginning in a sector that I never thought I'd be in:  sales.  Business and Marketing and Sales.  I always saw myself in the Humanities + Education world, and now I'm here:  learning about principles of persuasion and calling to action and closing the deal.  I keep hearing references about building a website and contacting clients...which I just think "I'll figure it out" while in my soul I'm like, "you mean...I have to do that?!"  Oh my goodness--it's kind of a battle between my head and heart, and today it's a lot.  Which is why I'm here...writing this and putting off the assignment.  But maybe if I write here, clear up the brain, I actually CAN do the work.

I keep reminding myself of all the things I've told students the last decade:  it's all about frequency and duration.  Students need to be frequent in sitting down daily to do the work, and plan at least 1 hour for the tasks that they just don't want to do.  I would always, always remind them that the first 15 minutes of any assignment / application / essay writing was painful.  It would be hard. It would suck.  There was no way around it, and it didn't mean they were doing anything wrong--it meant they were starting a hard task, and the only way through was simply through.  It would be easy to take a break, and think I'll come back tomorrow.  Easy to just stay on the surface part of knowledge and learning.  Basically the first 15 minutes is about getting the brain to go DEEP and force it to do some deep work for the next 45 minutes.  I've been preaching this for years, and I believe it.  Absolutely.  I've had students in my office who practice this, and the results are phenomenal.  And now...I'm the other student.

Which student?  You ask.

The other student.  The one who says, "let's skip this assignment and get to the real work...I'll be able to do the work when I get there.  I feel a bit of envy for one writer that has great voice and writing and seems to be the perfect copywriter, and I'm over here like, "Um...this is hard.  Do I have to do it?!"  Ugh...I hate that I'm the other student. 

I did the morning mantra and I've created the workspace.  And landed here.  To write.  To write and get it all out.  I think I'm struggling with the copy because there are rules and guidelines that I need to remember and use, and I can't.  Is this what it's like to be back in 9th grade, when they're telling me to write a 5-paragraph essay, and it feels so forced and contrived and hard?  Probably.  It's been a minute since I was there.  Okay...it's been more than a minute.  It's been THIRTY YEARS.  Thirty years since I was at the beginning...the real beginning of an educational path.  And now, I'm here again.  I remember thinking through this when I signed up for the course--how I was a good student, enjoyed learning, and I could do this.  I had done it with teaching, and I did it with college admissions--I knew next to nothing about college (except I had attended), and suddenly I was advising students on college admissions.  Well...same thing here.  The only thing I know about sales is that I have low sales-resistance.  Like...I'm the worst.  Or the best target for a salesman / sales pitch / sales promotion.  And now I'm studying it.  So.  Darn.  Funny.  Today it seems funny.

Funny enough that my brain is loosening up and I'm going to go back to the assignment and hammer it out.  The first 15 minutes is over, and I'm still here.  My phone is not visible, so I'm not going to be disturbed  I'm going to practice the frequency + duration for myself, and I bet it will even work (darn my own good advice!)  Because when you're that type of student, you need some good pep-talks and free-writing sessions to get in gear!

Milestones with Meaning

It happened.  

The big thing I've been waiting for.  

Yesterday, the girls mowed the lawn.  Then, when they came inside, I ushered them back outside with their younger brother.  We walked around the yard, me guiding them and highlighting several projects that needed completing.  They asked some questions, and I explained what needed to be done, and then I walked back inside.  

An hour later, I heard music coming from the backyard.  My daughter is the main DJ for our house, since she is the one with the Spotify account.  It was some sort of Meghan Trainer + Taylor Swift playlist, which wasn't a surprise.  I sat there working on my laptop, thinking, "that's cool--they've found a way to make yardwork more enjoyable."  Awhile later, I heard "A Hard Day's Night", and "Eight Days a Week" and knew that my son had made his musical opinion known.  They continued to work on the yard while listening to music.  I kept working on my assignments, trying to stay focused, while occasionally slipping into absent-mindedly singing Beatles lyrics.  How can I not sing "Come on, come on, come on, baby now...Twist and Shout!"?  I kind of got lost in my work and forgot that the music was mainly to help my kids keep working.

Two hours later, I heard the kitchen door open and close.  10 seconds later, a petition from my daughter to "come and see".  And when I went outside, they were now guiding me through the yard, pointing out the place they had trimmed back the grass, pulled weeds, and cut back the vines that were taking over the wooden steps leading to our backyard.  They accomplished in 3 hours what would have taken me two days of work.  They're younger and faster and less prone to getting distracted.  And it was amazing to see and just feel that we were at a milestone.

I'm not a big one for classic milestones, like the first day of school.  Honestly, most years I'm pretty tired from the summer and so feel mostly relieved to get to the first day of school.  I take the obligatory pictures of course, but I don't cry when my kids go through the front door and leave me alone.  I usually go home and take a nap and do nothing for the day.  But there are other days without fanfare that are the real milestones for me.  Yesterday was one of them:  my kiddos working for 3 hours on their own.  They used pruning shears and didn't get injured (milestone!).  They put all the grass clippings, weeds, and pinecones in the garbage cans swept up the dust on the patio (milestone!).  They put away the lawnmower and gloves into the shed without me reminding them (milestone!).  There were no pictures, no applause, no big moment.  Except that it was the big moment.  It was the milestone to say, "they're growing up."  So, I'll keep it in my heart and memories and jot it down here to remember that perhaps the milestones without fanfare are the biggest milestones with meaning.   

Coming Back

Here I am.  June of 2023.  I'm back here because I'm on my new career (freelance copywriting), and want to practice writing again.  Going through old posts has me wondering, "Why did I stop?  These are funny and good and I'm so glad I wrote them!"  The first question is answered simply:  I didn't think I was any good.  In fact, I thought I was no good.  I didn't get comments or views, which meant "failure" in my mind.  And to be honest, I think I was doing it more to be seen by others than for myself.  I'm back because I now see success and failure different.  I see success as continuing with hobbies and interests I love.  This blog seems like a good place to think and write, which I love to do.  And because I'm now doing it for me, who cares who sees it / doesn't see it?  I read a post from 2012 that made me laugh so hard today...11 years later.  Maybe that crap I'm going through today will make me laugh in another 11 years. So, going to write again. Also, I'm a writing addict--I have multiple journals going at once, and write on any paper in any meeting, in every margin of every book.  But I like how the blog gives space to write while working on some "polish" to that writing. And hopefully that will help give a place to write while I'm figuring out the new job.  The paying job.  Which is different than my other job: being a mom.  Which is what I'll mostly stick to writing here.   

So, I'll write about what I saw yesterday.  I took the kiddos on a hike to Waterfall Canyon.  It was our first hike of the year, and we've sadly missed the lime-green on leaves that happens earlier in the spring.  We waited because of the deep snowpack this year--and apparently we didn't wait long enough.  We made it about one-third up the actual canyon before we got to a spot where the trail was literally covered by a river.  Yes, a river.  It was at least 2 feet in places.  We saw some adults forging through, but my thoughts were primarily to keep my kids safe and happy.  Noel (the un-enthusiastic hiker) was actually having a good time, and I want to keep that going for the rest of the year.  Juliet wanted to keep going, because she will try anything.  A little scary, actually.  Chaim was totally willing and ready to be brave, but he would be up to his waist in that fast and frigid water, fighting an incredibly strong current.  So, we turned around.  The cool thing?  No one had a tantrum or complained--they simply understood why we needed to turn around.  And so we hiked back down and had a great time.  We ate apples and granola bars on the side of the trail sitting on dirt instead of at the beautiful waterfall, and it was great.  They laughed and sang and teased each other.  On the walk back down, there was a moment where Juliet reached out and held Chaim's hand, and kept holding it for several moments.  He loved it.  I loved it.  I had thought that reaching the waterfall would be the climax of the hike, but that moment was the climax.  It made my heart swell bigger than seeing the cascading waterfall that I love to see.  That feeling where my heart just feels full and bursting.  So. Darn. Good.  And especially good because I struggle with being a mom and figuring out all the "stuff"--but that moment made me feel like I had gotten one thing right.  My kids love each other.  All the other "stuff" became just that:  stuff.  

Post Note I just want to remember:

On the hike, I will often reach out and grab a branch or tree trunk to help pull me up (yes, I'm that 43-year-old mom that struggles with climbing over rocks and my kids laugh at me).  Anyway, the feel of the tree that has been grabbed thousands of times over the decades is smooth and worn and easy to grab.  The rough bark that usually covers the wood has worn down, and it's this amazing texture.  I love that so many people have used it that it's changed the composite of the branch or tree--but that the tree can still grow AND help people on their journey.  There's something there that I'd love to write about and explore more.