Throughout the rather harrowing year in which my daughter was applying to college, I kept remembering a quote that was reported to be one of the inspirations for Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot.” The quote is from St. Augustine, who was talking about the two thieves who were hanged with Christ at Calvary:
“Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned.”
After much turmoil, my daughter is now happily settled as a college freshman–as is everyone we know who went through the process, albeit not always at the school they originally had in mind. And that quote still sums up the process for me: Do not presume, but do not despair either.