As students reach the second semester of their junior year, they are presented with one of the most important decisions they have dealt with so far: choosing what to do once they graduate high school. Some may choose to go directly to joining the workforce, having a job lined up and knowing they can get it. Others may choose to take a gap year and take some time to live their life and decide what they want to do. But the vast majority of students will look at heading off to college as the best option for their post-high school life. The process of getting into college is a long and arduous one, and usually takes about a year to get to even applying let alone being accepted. It requires students to decide if they want small or large schools, urban or rural, where in the world they would want to live, as well as having some idea of what they want to study. Then they have to  find colleges that fit their criteria and decide which ones they actually want to apply to before going through all of the form submissions and essays and payments to even be considered. Finally, after all these steps have been completed, students still have to wait to actually be accepted somewhere.

COVID-19 has only increased the stress of this process for many students, and I wanted my photojournalism work to reflect that.  Not being able to really go to any of the colleges and only getting experience through research and occasional video sessions can leave you feeling incredibly turned around when getting ready to choose your school. And while you are making these decisions, you are constantly bombarded with letters and emails and texts from colleges you have no interest in. The continual communication with you can be overwhelming and cause you to just want to curl up in a corner and leave the whole process behind.