How it Started: How it’s Going

College is NOT the final goal: Your LIFE is

This is Us

Last year my husband and I binge-watched This is Us in about a three-month time frame. My husband was going through an unexpected health crisis brought on by gallbladder issues and necrotizing pancreatitis.

 If you know anything about This is Us, it’s quite the tear-jerker – and it was the constant in our chaotic life as Keith moved in and out of the hospital, at times fighting for his life.  

The plot of This is Us takes place in the present, but – at any time – the producers may fold in a scene from the past or the future. These abrupt interruptions take the audience on a wild ride of emotions, and it made me think differently about time and space and how the days of our lives mingle together and overlap. 

We watched that TV show together and cried with the Pearson family as we were now facing our own tough things. We cried as the screen flashed back to tragedies in the past and to the joys to come in the future. I wondered: would I like to know everything that is to come or could I be content living one day at a time? I decided living one day at a time was the best. It was the only option we had anyway. 

So what does this have to do with ACT test prep??

It’s been nine years since our oldest son got the score he needed on the ACT to get his tuition paid for, and I have been feeling a lot of deja vu lately. We all want good things for our children and the pull to overspend for college is strong. 

I can remember a time, not too long ago, when I could not see past my own child’s college choice. I was overwhelmed with the thought of borrowing tens of thousands of dollars for a college education. I knew that there were some schools my son liked better than others. Do you just pick the school you like best and hope it all works out? Do you settle for the school you don’t like as well, but that comes with a lower price tag? What is the point of college anyway?

These questions plagued me and honestly, it was difficult to imagine anything beyond those next four years. I think back now to how surprised I would be if I had only known what was still yet to come. 

My son chose to go to the school “that loved him back” – the school that would pay all of his tuition if he attended. He graduated early and married a wonderful girl. He got a job in his profession and started to build a life without the terrible burden of massive college debt. 

In June of this year, my husband was hospitalized again for a brief stay. It happened to fall over Father’s Day weekend. My son and his wife wanted to come visit us when we got home. They wanted to bring him his gift. I tried to tell them it wasn’t necessary, but they insisted. 

And what a gift it was!  After spending five days by my husband’s side in the hospital, my son and his wife told us we were going to be grandparents…to twins. I am typically a pretty reserved person, but this was almost too much. They filmed our reaction as I wildly exclaimed, “Life just keeps happening!!” Check out the video here to see more about that day. I laugh that my husband still had on his red, non-slip socks from the hospital.  

Fast forward to December 2023 and my husband and I were back in the hospital – this time in the waiting room as our daughter-in-law was having a c-section. I was holding my phone as my son was texting us with updates as he could. 

As I sat with my daughter-in-law’s mother, we were getting a bit worried. It was taking too long. We should know something soon. I then got a message from my son. I opened it to this picture. No words, just a picture.

It’s a moment frozen in time that I will remember forever. 

College is not the end-all-be-all. YOUR LIFE IS.

Here is a picture from 2014 when my son got the score he needed for college. He is standing with my father. After working so hard for so long, it was truly a party that day. Yet, this picture is bittersweet.

One month before this picture was taken, my dad had been unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer – such joy and hope and sadness all in one picture. 

The second picture was taken on Christmas day of 2023 – my son with a family of his own. There are nine years between these two pictures and so much life has been lived between them, full of both grief and joy. 

The twins were born December 20, 2023.

Isn’t life like that? Full of such tremendous grief and such miraculous joy?

The Real Goal of ACT Test Prep

If you need help paying for college, I can help you raise your ACT score. Be strategic about the colleges you apply to and look at their merit scholarships. If you can get scholarships by having a higher ACT score, I can help you reach those goals. But keep in mind that this is just a part of the larger picture that is your life. 

I’m happy to say that my passion for helping students and families navigate the ever-changing waters of paying for college has not lessened, only intensified. I also have great people around me helping me to get the message out. This is a lesson, too. In life, you don’t get where you are going all alone. The people who care for you are supporting you in reaching your goals and are helping you, too. 

So as you focus on ACTtest prep going into 2024, remember these lessons – life comes at you fast. And it just keeps on happening. 

If you need money for college and a higher ACT score will help, you can learn more about the success of students just like you here.