Planning

I showed my daughter an article about senior military colleges (senior? No idea why) such as the one that she wants to attend. The article itself was very brief, listing what the existing ones were, and a short squib about them, but the meat was the comments afterward. About a third were by people who strongly felt for or against the idea; some of them had actually gone to such schools, while the others wouldn't consider it. (And not always for the reasons one might expect). The remaining two thirds made thoughtful and useful comments either in support of going or in support of not going; a couple said what I'd told her - that military colleges aren't at all like the actual military. A couple of them said what she'd said -- that a school like those provides structure, whereas most colleges, whether they're straight-out civilian or partially military, do not. We've known for a while that she does better with structure, which is to say, better when the expectations and standards are clearly stated.

For the first time, she's seriously evaluating whether this is actually what she wants to do, and whether that college is the place to do it. (She's been accepted to a second school, one which also has a Corps of Cadets, but which incorporates the Corps in a much larger civilian student body. The primary college is much smaller, and is almost entirely Corps of Cadets.) I'm glad to see her doing this. Whether she decides to press on with her first choice, try for the other one, or do something else entirely, she will have thought about what she's doing, and why. And that's a good thing.