I'm going to be a high school senior this year. Very soon I'm going to be thrown out into adulthood with the weight of paying for college on my shoulders. Actually, that's not entirely true. My parents are going to pay for some of it, but I'm a triplet and paying for college for three kids can make any sane person go mad. So to keep my parents from heading to an asylum, I've been researching, and researching, and researching scholarships I can apply for. And for all those kids out there that are in a pit of deep despair called scholarship research, I feel you.

I know most everyone has a had a teacher, parent, or some adult in their life tell you that "millions and millions of scholarship money goes unclaimed every year!" Your first thought is no way, how can that be? Well I can answer your simple question for you. It's because the people who make up these scholarships have made it extremely difficult, like extremely difficult. THERE IS A REASON MILLIONS ARE UNCLAIMED EVERY YEAR. If it was easy, there wouldn't be any scholarships unclaimed every year. Swallow that scholarship people.

I recently bought a book of scholarships that has over 2,000 scholarships in it. I painstakingly went through every single scholarship in that book. It took me about 7 hours to go through all of them and I only qualified for about 100. That's only 5% of the scholarships in there. I have good grades, great community service, and I do many extra curricular activities. How in the world can I only qualify for 5%? It feels pretty ridiculous, but then again so does scholarship research.

Maybe it's because I have no cool history of being African American, or Hispanic, or Latino, or really any other race than the one am. Unfortunately I am not the first one in my family to go to college. And wouldn't it have been nice if someone in my family had cancer. I wish I had been a survivor of a catastrophic illness or been diagnosed with a disability. If any of that had happened, at least I would've gotten a scholarship. But I'm just stuck with being a normal kid trying to get into college. (Don't get me wrong though, I am extremely grateful that none of these things have happened to me, and that I have the wonderful family I have.)

I then think to myself, if I can only get 100 scholarships, I might as well start with those hundred. I start with the first scholarship. I log onto the website and they have been bought out by a company, so they don't even offer the scholarship anymore. The next scholarship I try, I realize I have missed the deadline, so I can't apply for that one either. The third one finally results in an actual scholarship I can apply for. Wow, I'm so glad I have wasted my time. I have spent a lot of time doing all of this research and I can only apply for one scholarship I might not even get? Are you kidding me?

Instead of going in order I decide to go with the scholarships that have a little more money associated with them. I'm sure most everyone has heard of the Coca-Cola scholarship. The one where you could be one lucky winner and get $250,000. Sounds great, but it's not. If you really read the fine print you don't actually get $250,000. You share that amount with however many other winners there are. Ugh.

For those of you still reading, you probably have fallen into the deep pit of despair I was talking about earlier even though you haven't even researched anything yet. Don't worry it's all going to be okay. I have some comforting tips for you to help get you through these difficult times. 1.) DON'T PROCRASTINATE. I put this first because it is the most important. It feels like school work, but with school work you can procrastinate and still be dandy after a sleepless night working on your project. That is not how it works with scholarships. The sooner you start your research, the more time you have to apply and not miss any deadlines. 2.) 10 hours = $1,000. Boom. That is honestly reason enough for me, but if you're still unsure, think about this: 10 hours working a job that pays you 10 bucks is only $100. It might be a little more difficult than flipping burgers, but it gets you 10 times more money, so who are we to complain. 3.) Other people feel your pain. Even if no one you know feels your pain, just know that I do. I really do. Don't get discouraged. Keep trucking along your path to scholarship heaven.