At this point of the year, juniors begin exploring their college of choice and options surrounding these colleges, while seniors should already possess an idea of their homes for the next four years.

NC students were given the opportunity to sign up and meet with college representatives from universities. Prior to the arrival of each spokesperson, the Future Shop oozed eager students awaiting the endless information they would revel in regarding the colleges residing in their hopes and thoughts.

Patiently waiting at the long meeting styled table for approximately thirty minutes on October 12 became tiring as the excitement dissipated from my body, replacing itself with disappointment and anger as the college representatives from Georgia Southern and Florida State University failed to show. Why would professionals keep a crowd of hopeful students on-hold and then proceed not to show?

It seems logical to assume that professionals would consistently display professionalism when representing a school, especially when teenagers are expected to exude that same courtesy. How difficult can it be to show up to a brief meeting for hopeful students and advertise the school you represent?

“Signing up for these meetings really felt like the next step for me, allowing me the control of what university rep that I got to meet. We were promised time with a representative and that’s exactly what we deserved. Unfortunately that’s not what we got,” junior Jacob Drobney said.

I hoped to see Georgia Southern University, with my 2:45 time slip prepared and my eager mentality, but little did I anticipate being turned away after a thirty minute waiting period with no information and no meeting. Taking time out of my learning resulted in the loss of new content taught the day before the test.

“I am sure that their failure to appear to our waiting students was due to oncoming events that led to our misfortune. We plan to contact each school for future hopes that students will still obtain an equal opportunity to hear from them,” said Counseling department chair Dr. Shropshire.

Why not notify the school and postpone the appearance? Why not inform the school of a possible absence to allow students to not miss class time?

“I continue to convince myself that they had a reliable excuse for being absent, but my built up impatience lacks the rationality that led me to believe that they honestly do not care and had better things to do,” senior Kayla Ebron said.

Students looked forward to receiving new information, but the results were nothing short of disappointing. I, like many others, counted on this opportunity as the next step toward a bright future, but instead of moving forward, I stayed stuck.