{"id":1493,"date":"2017-10-06T08:33:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T12:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2017-10-06T08:33:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T12:33:17","slug":"close-to-missing-something-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/10\/06\/close-to-missing-something-great\/","title":{"rendered":"Close to Missing Something Great"},"content":{"rendered":"
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iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This column was first shared on the\u00a0<\/em>NACAC Exchange<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s just BUSY this time of the year, and while what I WANT to do is close the door and write, write, write, there are a myriad of other things that have to do done. There is nothing that says fall like the word busy.<\/p>\n

So when a student popped in my office and asked if she could work on her application, I told her sure and kept working on what I needed to do. She would ask the occasional question, but mostly we were both working on her separate to-do lists.<\/p>\n

Then there was silence. As a father of five, I FEAR silence. I looked up, and she was crying.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I asked what was wrong. She said in the smallest voice you can imagine, “My parents never went to college. I just finished my first application to college. No one in my family has ever gone to college.”<\/p>\n

And I almost missed it.<\/p>\n

I jumped up, did a happy dance, high-fived her, and cried and celebrated with her.<\/p>\n

And so my thought to you today is: Don’t be me. Don’t miss the important things. Remind yourself that this is all new to them, even though you have done it for decades.<\/p>\n

It was such a beautiful glorious moment.<\/p>\n

And I almost missed it.<\/p>\n

NACAC member Steve Peifer serves as director of college counseling at The King\u2019s Academy (FL). He is a recipient of the CNN Heroes Award for Championing Children (2007) and the NACAC Excellence in Education Award (2010). Peifer is the author of \u201cA Dream So Big.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This column was first shared on the\u00a0NACAC Exchange. It’s just BUSY this time of the year, and while what I WANT to do is close the door and write, write, write, there are a myriad of other things that have to do done. There is nothing that says fall like the word busy. … Continue reading Close to Missing Something Great<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-admission"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Steve Peifer","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/steve-peifer\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-o5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}