It is finished.

After checking and rechecking (and checking again), after reading and re-reading (and reading once more), after diving deep into the treacherous waters swirled up by many a tricky essay prompt and contending with the devilry of suffocating word limits – it is finished.

For all the seniors who have now officially submitted their college applications, I congratulate you.  I join now your ranks with a wide, long smile (but not too long – word limits and all), and I look forward to that day in spring when the postman will bring to our empty mailboxes some news of our future, that piece of paper that so many pieces of paper and application forms have preceded – the acceptance letter.

Yes, college applications are done.  They’re done.  Cooked.  Dealt with.  Terminated.  Sacked.  Over.  Cast to the wind.  Gone.  Gone like disco music or Elvis’ hair.  Gone like 2013.  Gone like The Backstreet Boys.  Gone like wingtips or Soul Train.

Yep, college apps are gone.  It’s all downhill from here.  Gravity is just about to kick in and pull us ever so gently into the college experience, that phase where so much of life begins.

Right?

Over the past few months an incredible truth has gradually dawned on me.  When I say “gradually dawned,” I mean it came flying in through the window like an Angry Bird and struck me upside the head, pumping some unforeseen realization into the combustion chamber of my brain.  BOOM!  The truth had “gradually dawned.”

Here it is.  College is not the mountaintop.  College is not that emotional scene at the end of your favorite Disney movie when the moral of the animated storyline becomes clear as a crystal slipper.  Yes, attendance of college is a life-changing experience, a seemingly endless opportunity to make discoveries about oneself, about the world, about life.  But don’t buy into the easy assumption that discovery is something waiting to be unearthed in all our sunny tomorrows.

In other words, start discovering today.

Was Sir Isaac Newton sitting in a university laboratory when the truth of gravity “gradually dawned” on him from above?  Did Thoreau expound his philosophies on simple living in a college classroom – or in slightly less comfortable surroundings?  Are college campuses the only vendors of the kind of inspiration that led Steve Jobs to revolutionize the electronics industry?

Hmm… The answer seems to me No, no, and no.  Discovery is waiting to be tapped into at every turn, at every moment, in every environment.  Do not defer the electricity of personal exploration until your college days.  Find ways to explore today – deeply and passionately – the things that you might not find here in high school.  Research, read, race into opportunities to stretch and test the limits of the imagination.

Sure, you say, that’s real convenient to do in public school here in Suburbia, USA.  All you cynics, consider this.  During the seven-hour school day, the typical high school student is absolutely surrounded by other people.  Searching for a place to make discoveries?  Start with your classmates.  Get to know their dreams and the color of their personalities and aspirations. Wherever there are people, there is something to learn and something unique and valuable to experience.

Discovery can start whenever you want it.  College is not the beginning, or at least it shouldn’t be, for what have we missed out on in the meantime if we live by that expectation?  High school isn’t a world-class research institute, but don’t let that be an excuse to not ask questions and dig deeper into the substance of life.

Be inspired to ask the big questions today.  Speaking of big questions, I wonder what’s for lunch…