Hi everybody.

This short segment is what we call for the good of the order.

It's something we used to do at the end of my sorority meetings, if you can believe that,

where someone would share something that they came across in the course of the week, a poem, a song lyric, a short story, that they found enormously helpful as they went about daily life.

And I wanted to pick up the thread because I am so often wowed by something I see in the world

that I want to bring back and hand off to you.

So every Friday we produce a short segment called for the good of the order.

Think of it like an audio greeting card, a thing to share with the people that you love around the country

who you don't get to see or talk to enough. A thing to discuss with the people you do see and talk to

on a more regular basis.

This is Kelly Corrigan Wonders for the good of the order. This week's go to is something that we like to share every year because November 1st is the date that early decision applications to college are due.

And every year I find myself thinking about a certain set of kids that I have come to love

over the years who are in knots over where they may or may not get in.

I remember vividly what the application process looked like for both my girls,

and I think just handing one in deserves a moment of pause and celebration.

So I'm going to read you a piece I wrote called After a College

Applicant hits Send.

If it's not relevant to you, just share it with someone for whom this has been a very stressful time.

In the early days of last fall, my daughter was projecting confidence about the college application

process.

She'd made a spreadsheet, things would be checked off, it'll all come together, mom.

But right around this point, with classes and sports and full swing college mutated from something exciting to that which shall not be named

...