Being Accepted

I am not usually one to care what people think nor do I ever pay attention to whether they accept me or not. I have tried to instill this sense of character independence in my children as well. But there are times when it becomes necessary to ask for acceptance. Today happened to be such a case for Ashley. She is now a senior in high school with dreams of going to college. She has been a successful high school student having good grades throughout school. She has many extra- curricular accomplishments to her name and her college entrance test scores are very good as well. Her problem is that she only wants to attend one college, that being BYU. I cannot blame her for that, after all that is where I graduated some 20 years ago. Her heart is set on going to the "Y" and if she does not get in, she will be heart broken. BYU is quite hard to gain entrance to and I have tried to tell her that even though she is a good student, there is a possibility that she will not be able to get into the school. She seems to understand that but she still will only consider Brigham Young. For the past several weeks, she has been working on her application and all the documents that go with it. She has written essays, had interviews, made phone calls, and done everything in her power to try to get into this college. Today, was the culmination of her efforts. I went to the mail box today and there found a letter from the BYU Admissions office. I took it into the house and found Ashley to give her the mail. She looked at the envelope and her hands were shaking in anticipation. I could tell she was nervous and a little frightened to open it. Finally, she tore it open and begin reading. After the first paragraph, she began to scream and tears appeared in her eyes "I've been accepted!" It was a wonderful moment for her as her dreams and hard work met in one moment as her goal was accomplished. Then it hit me, "Oh great, she got accepted!" I could almost immediately feel my wallet become lighter.