8.21.09

I have a cousin who will be a high school senior this year. I like that he doesn't think he's too cool for me. I even secretly think that he looks up to me. At least that's what I like to think, me being his oldest cousin and all.

He was up here visiting over the past few days to check out Bay Area schools - Stanford University seems to be top at this point. It's no surprise, since he's super smart and wouldn't take offense to me calling him a nerd. To cap off his visit I decided today to give him one more college tour, which for some reason didn't make his list. The Academy, I told him, boasts a 100% acceptance rate. He smiled because yesterday we joked about Stanford's 7%.

He told me this is the biggest decision of his life to this point. I told him that college will be a good experience, but I didn't quite burst his bubble that it will be plenty tough, too. He also told me that him and his girlfriend would like to maybe attend the same college to stay together. Didn't burst his bubble on that one, either. No one really burst my bubbles if I think about it. At the point they do burst (and they will), reality seems all too crushing. What is revealed is the landing underneath (the stuff that faith is made of), but only if first your own bubbles are burst.