procrastination ³
  definition: what you're doing right now

Urban Dictionary had nailed it. And Margo had never felt so screwed because of that, not since the same web address had torn away the remnants of her childhood all of five years ago.

Since when did she frequent Urban Dictionary? The website was a gutter of NC-17 rated filth, to say the least- no, scratch that, since when did she procrastinate? Yet here she found herself, and it had very much to do with the one thing she couldn't put off: the future.

It was with a sigh that the girl clicked out of her browser and looked across the room to the mound of mail dumped unceremoniously at the foot of the bed- letters, flyers, but most of all, college brochures and packages. To say that every major institute of secondary learning was represented would have been an understatement; it was the culmination of six months' worth of signing up for everything she could get her hands on, and constantly forgetting to check up on it, and this was the result.

It had taken her an hour and a half to sort them into no and maybe piles, which had helped a little, except the maybe pile was still overflowing the rim of the laundry basket in the corner. That was about when Margo had pulled out her laptop to try and look all the places up, and had ended up procrastinating on Urban Dictionary instead. But, what was she supposed to do? The Internet said to ask authority figures, but those she had none.

........But wait. Xavier's touted itself as a school so there had to be a guidance counselor, right? A college and career advisor, even one that was most likely hopelessly under-qualified, would be better than nothing at this point.

That was how the girl found herself knocking on door to said office, accompanied by a laundry basket.

Gemma had seen many students come to her office for many different reasons; however, not many of them carried a laundry basket full of what seemed like assorted mail. Opening her door, Gemma blinked a few times, wondering if the girl was on mail duty today, then she remembered to smile and greet her.

"Hi" she said "... Margo, right? Come on in."

She opened the door wider and stepped back, making sure she had ample space to walk in, basket and all.

"That's... a lot of mail" she noted, eyeing the basket "What can I help you with?"

The door was opened, and two way blinking ensued. Oh, so the counselor was this woman? Margo had seen her around but never quite put that together, and for her own part she seemed rather surprised at the girl and laundry basket before her- more the laundry basket than the girl, probably.

"Hey, Miss Taylor," smiled Margo. Having lugged the overflowing basket of mail through the door, she set it down and nudged it across the floor. "It is Margo, yes. And I know, which is what I came to ask you about."

A sigh as she regarded the assorted mail, topped off by her class records and schedule which she picked up. "What advice would you give to help narrow down college choices, and are the classes I'm taking now sufficient for those choices?"

>>"Hey, Miss Taylor. It is Margo, yes. And I know, which is what I came to ask you about."

Gemma offered a seat to the girl, and helped her place the basket on the coffee table. It was a large pile of envelopes, and some notes on top. Gemma took a seat too, and look at Margo with curiosity.

>>"What advice would you give to help narrow down college choices, and are the classes I'm taking now sufficient for those choices?"

Well then. Gemma looked pleasantly surprised. For once in a very long time, she would actually be doing what a school counselor was most qualified to do: Helping kids make choices about their education. It was a welcome change from Internet AMAs and court appointments.

"Sure, I can help you with that" she nodded with a smile "There are a number of ways we can work through this. But before we get to the letters" she glanced at the basket "Why don't you tell me about what you are looking for? It's okay not to have your plans laid out, but I can help you more if you give me an idea of what you would like to do in college."

Miss Taylor was surprised at being asked a valid question. Margo took note of the fact, but could hardly blame the woman; she worked as a counselor at the Mansion, after all.

“I want to learn,” she answered thoughtfully, “about the things I’m actually interested in. I want to meet people who want to learn, and I want to be challenged, and I want to see the world. I want to do anything but waste my time, if you know what I mean.”

Margo smiled then, cynically, because that had definitely been too honest. “But if college is just going to be a name and a degree on my resume, and that’s what I need to live comfortably in the world, I’m fine with that too.”

Gemma listened patiently, tilting her head as the girl talked about her dreams. They were common dreams, dreams that a lot of girls had, but they were good dreams, good solid shiny dreams, none the less. Not very specific; but specificity was her job. Wishing, and being excited about education, was an excellent place to start.

"Alright then" she nodded with a smile "Let's find a place you'll like, shall we?" she glanced at the pile of letters "How about... we look at places you'd like to go to? That is always a good place to start, if you don't pick by program or major, picking the region or town is a good idea... or at least we could eliminate the places were you would not want to live?"

Sometimes, people had more concrete ideas about what they did not want. Especially when they were young.

Margo was listened to patiently, smiled and nodded at. Somehow she got the feeling that Gemma had heard all of this before— not that she particularly cared whether her dreams were stereotypical or common, as long as the counselor could give her some advice.

>>"Alright then. Let’s find a place you'll like, shall we? How about... we look at places you'd like to go to? That is always a good place to start, if you don't pick by program or major, picking the region or town is a good idea... or at least we could eliminate the places were you would not want to live?”

“Okay,” Margo said, then paused. Did Gemma want her to make a list of places where she didn’t want to live? Because the only such place she could think of right now was Australia, and that didn’t exactly narrow down her choices because she wasn’t even considering going to college in Australia. “Um,” she said eloquently, “off the top of my head? Or should we go through my letters?”

The overflowing laundry basket of not-laundry stared them down from the coffee table. 

>>“Okay... Um... off the top of my head? Or should we go through my letters?”

Margo was suddenly a lot less confident than she'd been before; the pile of letters loomed on the table before them, and Gemma had to admit, it did look kind of intimidating. Probably even more so when one had to base a decision on it...

"Let's take a look" she suggested with a smile, pulling a chair up to the table "Here. Let's take the letters one by one, and just look at the places. You can make two piles" she cleared up some more space on the table "... if it's a place you'd like to live in, it goes here..." she noted one corner "... and if it's too hot, or too cold, or too far, or... you know, if you don't think you'd like living there, you put it over here."

Of course, they were not going to throw out pile 2, not yet. Gemma was going to take a look at those too; she knew a lot about colleges that Margo didn't, and she could help her reconsider some of them, if it was worth a shot.

>>”Here. Let's take the letters one by one, and just look at the places. You can make two piles... if it's a place you'd like to live in, it goes here... and if it's too hot, or too cold, or too far, or... you know, if you don't think you'd like living there, you put it over here.”

“Okay,” Margo said, and got to work.

New York- yes. She’d lived here for a couple years now, and liked it just fine. That took care of at least a dozen letters. Texas- no. Chicago- yes. Los Angeles, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts- near New York, so yes. Kansas- no. Florida- not at all like her other choices, but why not.

She hesitated the longest on an orange brochure with a white paw print on it. Clemson, in South Carolina. Out of all the places she had lived, South Carolina was the one that she called home... whatever that meant. Margo missed it, but she also dreaded the idea of going back.

She put the letters from South Carolina in pile 2, and hoped that she had made the right decision.

Margo sorted the envelopes with relative ease and efficiency; Gemma sat back and watched. She followed the choices, making mental notes of them. She noted how many of the universities nearby Margo kept, and also the ones that she threw out without hesitation. She tilted her head at South Carolina, but did not comment when it landed in the second pile.

Once the two piles were made, Gemma leaned forward towards the first pile.

"Well... you're one step closer now" she smiled "Mind if I take a look? I can see if I have anything useful to say about any of these schools." she paused "Do you have... a general idea of what field of study you might choose? It's fine if it's vague, but it helps look for better programs..."

“Sure,” Margo said. She nudged the pile of letters over to Gemma, and relaxed for all of five seconds before another question was thrown at her. The question, to be exact.

>>"Do you have... a general idea of what field of study you might choose? It's fine if it's vague, but it helps look for better programs..."

The question was one that her dad had been asking her since middle school, and one that she’d told him, honestly to begin with, that she didn’t know the answer to. By eighth grade, Margo had decided that she wanted to go to law school. She kept telling her dad that she didn’t know, though, and eventually he stopped asking.

She was older and wiser now, and she didn’t know if she still wanted to go to law school.

“Business, science, or engineering,” said Margo, after some hesitation.

>>“Business, science, or engineering,”

There was some hesitation in Margo's voice, but she seemed to have a general idea of which direction she wanted to go. That was better than many students Gemma had worked with. Of course she would not rule out schools just based on this (students often changed their minds, that was exactly what undergraduate programs were designed for), but she could use it to put the possible schools into some kind of an order.

"Here" she said, leafing through the colleges, and putting some of them aside "You might want to look at these. They have strong programs in those fields. These" she added a few in another pile "Are decent in them, but also have strong programs in other things you might want to look into. These are good choices if you are not very sure yet - you can switch majors in them easily, and still get a decent degree in whatever you choose."