Whew -- I've scheduled this week as a "catch up and breathe" week - for myself and for you. Unless you are a highly productive robot or an insane person, you are behind on something by now. I personally was behind with the blog, so I just published the Week 12 blog - halfway into Week 13. You are most likely behind on the following (in no particular order): sleep, college applications, school work, family or friend time. In other words, life.

So take the break to catch up and breathe. Don't add anything to your list, just work on things already on your list. And stop often to breathe - like every 30 minutes or so. And I mean really breathe - long inhale, long exhale.

One of the things that I hope you learn during the college application process is that we all need to allow for breaks where we catch up and breathe. If you are going to manage the ambitious life you have planned, you simply have to schedule some slack weeks. If you don't, your head will explode off your body. Guaranteed. Or if not that, then you'll blow something big at work or have a huge fight with someone important to you. All equally grim.

Practice this important skill now. Catch up. Breathe.

Comments or Questions? 

Not this week.  You don't have time to post -- you are busy catching up and breathing.  Enjoy.

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.