Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!

This past weekend, I attended a family wedding. Today, I attended a funeral of the grandmother of the groom, a woman in her late 80s, and then came home to find a message in my voicemail that my elderly uncle, a gentleman in his 90s, had fallen and broken his pelvis. Fortunately, he did not require surgery and should be okay after extensive rehab.

All of this comes at a time when students are hearing good news, not-so-good news, and certainly mixed news (when they are deferred or accepted into programs that are not their first choices). Life is kind of like that. Good news tends to be tempered with the not-so-good, and vice versa.

Although it would be nice if students could hear from all of the schools to which they have applied at the same time, which balances the not-so-good news with the good, that’s not how the system works. What I do know from my years of working in educational consulting is that late March tends to be a very nice time of year for seniors, as they hear from the bulk of their schools, and that good news does tend to predominate.

It’s okay to be disappointed now if you don’t get in – that’s human nature – but it will get better. So take a few days and then by all means, move on and enjoy the holidays.

I hope I am not dating myself too much when I end with some lyrics from a famous Monty Python song:

If life seems jolly rotten,
There’s something you’ve forgotten!
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing,
When you’re feeling in the dumps,
Don’t be silly chumps,
Just purse your lips and whistle — that’s the thing!
And always look on the bright side of life!