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aeraustol
Jun 204 min read
Helping your College-Bound High Schooler with the College App Process: What You CAN Do.
I am a college app essay coach, and I need to be reminded of this advice as much as anyone else. I have three children. One is in...
13 views0 comments
aeraustol
Mar 293 min read
Values-Hunting: The Essence of You
Here I go again, preaching about college essays and how to approach them. Here I go again, trying to convince a teenager it's fun and...
35 views0 comments
aeraustol
Mar 205 min read
The Secret Self, Boring Questions, and College Prep Google Docs.
One of the questions adults often ask teenagers or even young children is "What do you want to do when you grow up?" And in the latter...
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aeraustol
Mar 122 min read
I Love Runny Eggs: A College App Brainstorming Exercise
One of my favorite exercises to help ease my college app essay clients out of their heads and into a more safe, creative, authentic space...
41 views1 comment
aeraustol
Mar 82 min read
Ignore (some) Advice; Proceed with Caution
If you google "college essay topics to avoid," you will find things like personal tragedies, obstacles in sports, immigrant stories,...
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aeraustol
Feb 196 min read
Teenage Date Nights and the Left-Behind Barbie
Parenting is one long goodbye. The college app process brings all the layers of this fact, culminating all the years of tiny practice...
56 views0 comments
aeraustol
Jan 82 min read
Back to Turnbow
I finally did the thing, though not legal yet. Life is so hard and complicated. Waiting for the right time to let go of my married name...
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aeraustol
Aug 10, 202313 min read
Neighborhood Haunt
“I think this is it,” I said, stopping in front of the door under a green awning. I squinted to be sure I was seeing the number...
59 views0 comments
aeraustol
Jul 24, 20231 min read
Emerge
I am yesterday. I am today. I am a piece of chocolate cake in the slimy mucus of my belly. I am a leaning-to-ward. A desire. I am hands....
49 views2 comments
aeraustol
Jun 17, 20233 min read
Broken Record
I woke up to a text from my daughter this morning. "Here, safe!" the text gleefully proclaimed. My three kids and their dad landed in...
275 views1 comment
aeraustol
May 25, 20232 min read
I Can't Stop Smiling
I can’t stop smiling when my son lands his side rails. When a whole room of boys cheer for one. One kid wears a flat billed hat and jeans...
47 views0 comments
aeraustol
May 2, 20231 min read
Don't Get Me Started
Don't get me started about orgasms organics plastics politics probiotics chickens chattel chill out. Don’t get me started about those who...
72 views1 comment
aeraustol
Apr 3, 20231 min read
Exit 21 Maple
Yesterday when I drove off Exit 21, the Maple that had been deep red had faded into the color of rust. For weeks, I have loved her...
42 views0 comments
aeraustol
Jan 15, 20233 min read
Speaking of Trees
Sometimes my brother and I pressed our foreheads against the window in our mother's office and watched the college students in the...
79 views0 comments
aeraustol
Oct 18, 20221 min read
Cario, Egypt
Something about the Islamic prayer Reverberating in the dusty boney dog and cat infested sweet potato food cart courtyard outside the...
60 views3 comments
aeraustol
Aug 30, 20221 min read
YOU WOULDN'T KNOW
If I didn’t write this poem, you wouldn’t know the hum of my dishwasher, the way one dish clinks against another, the strum of my son’s...
94 views1 comment
aeraustol
Jun 3, 20227 min read
An Old Story Told By A Magical Boy
The Looking Tree Originally Published in Rock and Sling in 2015 A little boy sits in a tree, waiting for the bus to bring his sister...
132 views1 comment
aeraustol
Feb 3, 20216 min read
Teenage Writers, Poetry Readings and What Matters
Mona, my high school senior AP English teacher, used to say that her dog was more intelligent than her students. She described how her...
50 views0 comments
aeraustol
Dec 7, 20203 min read
A Swirl of Truth and Fiction
Lately, I'm trying to lean into what is rather than what I want. I wish I could make that a very active, confident sentence. "I am...
80 views1 comment
aeraustol
Oct 15, 20202 min read
Help with The Next Right Step
Let me just get right to the point. Do you know someone who needs help with college application essays? Are they stressed about writing...
72 views0 comments
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