I'm in the spring semester of my junior year of high school, which means I'm looking at colleges. I haven't got long to decide which ones I'm applying to. I'm leaning towards Fordham or NYU, but I want to make some more college visits, too.
This should be my decision. Sure, there are people I ask for advice from, and, yeah, my parents are going to have an opinion whether I ask for it or not. But, really, this is my choice about where to spend four years (or thereabouts; factor in things like study abroad, and maybe less) of my life, so it should be my choice.
Everyone, though, has an opinion. Everyone from the people who think I should go to community college because it's cheaper (I'm first in my class. I'm not going to go to community college. There's nothing wrong with that if it's what you want, but it is not what I want) to those who think I should be applying to Harvard (despite the fact that I don't want to go to Harvard and probably couldn't get in, anyway, because they have like a nine percent acceptance rate).
My grandmother keeps suggesting odd, random places she thinks I should go, for no apparent reason, and is very persistent about them no matter how many times I tell her I do not want to go to Vermont or Arizona! My grandfather regularly extolls the virtues of Boston (because he's from there). My aunt and uncle, for no apparent reason (they are not from there and have never lived there) tell me Chicago is the place to be. Other people have more specific ideas about exactly what school I should go to. A family friend heard about Stanford's improved financial aid and thinks that's where I belong. My mother says I should go anywhere that offers me a scholarship (no thanks. I'm not going to engineering school, for one).
I'll stop the list there, but, suffice to say, everyone has an opinion. No matter what my opinion is, they think theirs is best. I am not letting anyone else run my life for me, and the people who know me well--my family--should have figured that out by now. Alas, no.