Fast-forward almost five months later, and a new batch of seniors hog the majority of his time slots for appointments. In the first 2 weeks of the semester, most of the requests were about schedule conflicts, but later on, the students start making appointments for college advising. And yet, somehow, during class hours, he managed to get some coursework done for his online M.Ed. in educational leadership.
If a student just wants to attend one of these trade or state schools that don't ask for letters of recommendation, I don't need to stress over these students. But then comes William, who comes to my office, tied for first in the class, along with Imélie, Camden opens the door for William for his after-school appointment.
"William, please come in!" Camden instructs William when he is in the hallway. "Let's start with a review of your academic records, as well as extracurriculars"
4.0/35. One HSNCT participation (24th), on the back of a silver medal at quiz bowl-State, captaincy of the agricultural sales and marketing team within FFA, for which the VAs competed at State but fell short of a national berth. And a bunch of smaller-time stuff such as the 4-H, church volunteering, working at a summer camp, and student newspaper. And several APs, too. Oh boy. This is going to be problematic. However, this is the kind of students that carry the greatest payoffs come Ivy Day, Camden starts getting shivers down his spine upon reviewing William's file. As much as I'd love to warn him about not applying to too many schools, he lists a bunch of schools where applying there is tantamount to gambling.
"As tempting as it may be to apply to mostly elite schools, I'd say that you should have at least two or three that aren't reaches and that you can afford to attend. Just stay away from out-of-state public schools" Camden warns him. "I want you to understand how exhausting writing dozens of supplements really is"
Ugh... I must talk about his penchant for intellectual risk-taking, but also about other things not in his Common App essay. And, of course, address the extracurricular rationing in place, he starts sweating upon seeing the number of applications William plans on sending. And reading the essay he wrote for his first AP English assignment.
He also gets started writing the letter of recommendation for not only William, but also the other top students who started early. One, Sapphire, does dramatic interpretation, and, of course, Imélie and Vontae, both being mathletes.
Ouch. How could I write about, say, Imélie's growth from intense anxiety, or Sapphire being very earnest, as well as expressive and creative off stage, and make sure it sounds natural? And fit in any contextual information they provided, while not exceeding two pages? Camden ruminates, while realizing that Sapphire doesn't have the same reputation among the school staff as the other 3. Especially since forms attached to counselor recs ask him to stack kids up against each other. Sapphire could prove the sleeper pick for this year. Just thinking about writing these recs for these kids is making me want to scream for something that would come months later; I would rather send transcripts along with school reports. And their transcripts are damned good...
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Once his day ends at work, he dashes out of the school grounds and drives straight to the racetrack, hoping to get the inspiration he needs to finish writing these recs for these kids. This time around, he plans on doubling the budget he used to gamble when he took the kids to Delta Downs. When I last went here, I budgeted $90, of which $40 was split among the kids; today I'll have $200, and my hope is to come out of here tonight at least $15 ahead, because I lost $15 to Myriam last time.
Yet, upon arriving in Vinton an hour later, he is racing against the clock to ensure that he can get his bets in on the daily double. He hastily reviews the horses in the first 2 races, hoping it will buy him time to finish writing recs for the strongest 4 students.
At the self-service betting machine, he starts sweating as the starting time for the first race draws near. He's about to be betting $15... For the first race, I'm going with horse #3 since that horse reminds me of Sapphire, and, I guess I have no choice, since there are only a few seconds left before wagers close, but horse #6 on the second race, he keeps sweating while a clock is ticking on the machine.
In the nick of time, he gets his wager ticket, and he gets into position to watch the first 2 races of the day. He then resumes writing Sapphire's counselor recommendation, which was unfinished as he was struggling to think of how to fit Sapphire's dysfunctional family dynamics in a way that might compel an admissions committee.
"And they're off!" the steward shouts into the PA system, which is also the signal to him to resume writing the first of the 4 letters.
The best way to address Sapphire's family life during the pandemic is to be short and sweet, and directly address freshman year's struggles with her parents' long COVID affecting her ability to focus and the need to care for them, Camden is suddenly reminded of the fast pace of the first thoroughbred race he bet $15 on. He manages to write a few sentences about parents' struggles with long COVID and how they affected her extracurricular commitments.
As the horses race down the home stretch, he keeps his eyes above the laptop screen. Caught into the excitement of a close finish, he keeps an eye on horse #3. Which, 50m away from the finish line, is a little behind.
He then crosses his fingers for a few seconds. The two animals and their jockeys duke it out with every meter, and horse #3 closes in on horse #5 from the outside. Camden's blood pressure rises with each meter the animals travel. When the race ends, its excitement and febrility subsides. He might have won the first half of the wager, but the onus is now on the second half of the daily double. No more pesky family to prevent me from enjoying these races the way I want! he keeps to himself.
Stolen story; please report.
During the downtime between the first and second races of the day, however, he looks back on the nearly finished letter that he feels needs only a little more polishing before he can send it to the colleges Sapphire plans on applying to.
"Why am I doing this? Am I about to gamble the kid's future away?" Camden starts sobbing and echoing.
"Is that any different from betting on horse races?" a regular of the track asks him, overhearing the questions being asked out loud.
"I'm Camden, by the way, and there are two key differences between writing a reference for a student and betting on horse races as far as the gambling aspect is concerned. Betting on horse races affects mostly me, and the stakes are on a different time frame"
Am I seeing gambling everywhere now? People usually imagine gambling to be a very "here-and-now" kind of thing, Camden muses, while he tries to polish Sapphire's counselor rec amid the noise of the racetrack.
Yet, somehow, this realization that students are, to varying extents, gambling their futures away makes Camden less nervous about polishing Sapphire's counselor rec. Which he finishes just in time for the post time of the second race of the daily double. Now that Sapphire's rec is done, time to focus fully on the race, he muses while the bugle "call to the post" rings in his ears.
Of course, Camden trembles in his seat and, as he watches the race unfold, he feels more shivers down his spine than during the first race. Especially since the prospect to win hundreds, if not thousands of dollars is tantalizingly within reach. He then tucks his laptop in a bag underneath his seat.
Shortly after the first curve, he checks on his mobile how much he stands to win for every $2 he bet on the daily double should horse #6 win this race. As soon as the potential payoff is known, Camden starts hollering entreaties to horse #6 hoping the horse would listen.
And yet, once horse #6 gets down the home stretch, he gets a notification on mobile. Who could that be, a partner in a group project? A student sending in a form or applying? He keeps wondering what the notification could be for, but resists the urge to check his mobile phone. At least until the race ends.
"Yes!" an exuberant Camden raises from his seat, shouting for joy upon horse #6 winning the second race of the day.
The counselor ends up winning several times his initial budget over, and then dashes to collect his winnings at the teller. Once he gets the full amount of the winnings, he makes a new budget based on how much he earned. He must put aside $15 because then he'd fulfill his goal for the night. The rest of it, nearly $1k, is fair game for further betting, or dining.
Once he sits down at the resto-bar that he couldn't visit when he brought the kids to Delta Downs five months earlier...
"I overheard you talking about different time frames for gambling. Could you please elaborate?" a bar patron asks Camden right next to him before Camden can order his food.
"Betting on horse races is a very short-term kind of gambling; investing could be seen as a long-term gamble" Camden answers the bar patron, before turning to his cell phone while his neighbor orders food.
Oh, it's just Imélie having signed her Tulane early decision agreement. I'll sign it right away, finish writing her rec, and be done with her until the final transcript is due, Camden sighs, then hastily signs Imélie's ED agreement on his phone. He then places a $20 show bet on the third race before returning to order his food.
"I bet the price of an owner's license that you would like to be a racehorse owner" Alan, the patron, tells him after the food is ordered.
"Damn it, I think racehorse ownership is too expensive for me" Camden sighs, while having a rough idea of the costs of horse upkeep.
"Most racehorse owners do so as part of a partnership, but you need a license first"
The way the patron talked about racehorse partnership, it would be much like owning stocks on the stock market: I'd pay for X stake, and then I'd receive dividends accordingly. With a twist: I'd also pay bills that way, too, Camden starts wondering how much a racehorse ownership license is.
He spends the rest of the night eating, betting on horse races as his bankroll allows him to, finishing Imélie's counselor rec as well as William's, to the extent that it was feasible to write recs in an environment as noisy as a hippodrome on a race night.
As the races go on, he goes from wagering $20, then $25, and always wagering a higher sum from a race to the next. However, he mostly places show bets in earlier races, then shifting to making place bets later on.
Going into race 8, he lost 5 bets in a row, and is down $150. I guess, I may as well wager $50; hopefully I can make back the lost $150 with the place bet I'm about to make, and then some, he starts thinking less and less straight as the night goes on. He hastily puts in his bet for $50 in the betting machine on a horse he believes has a chance to not only place, but also would pay out better than 3-1 in doing so.
After that, he is busy finalizing Vontae's rec, while remaining mindful that his rec mustn't sound similar to other recs he wrote for other students up to this point.
Yet, after hearing "And they're off" for the eighth time, he feels like he doesn't have enough energy left to place more wagers as well as continue writing the fourth counselor's rec (all 4 recs were started in their respective appointments earlier that week). He then saves the file, and, after the official standings of race #8 are released, he feels... relief.
Relief that he finally paid back his previously losing bets and that his luck has turned around. And also abstaining from making any further bets while spending the last 50 minutes or so, with an extra $50 to show for this risky wager in race #8.
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Two hours later, he returns home to a furious Brittany, and all 4 recs being completed for use in these students' applications:
"Where have you been?" Brittany yells at him while the kids are already in bed.
"I've been busy writing recs for these kids doing early admissions! I'm putting in a lot of work to ensure their future! But I couldn't do it at home because the kids would slow me down!" Camden retorts and yells what he feels he can tell Brittany without gambling entering the equation.
Thank God everyone else wanting in at LSU or Louisiana Tech don't apply all at once! So while I might have to write 40 recs in any given year, I don't feel as pressured by the other kids, Camden feels the stress but offers to show her the 4 recs he managed to write while at Delta Downs.
"Why did it take so long to write four letters of recommendation?" Brittany questions him on his work ethic.
"Because I need to cross-check against the kids' essays to ensure that I don't make excuses and that I don't repeat what was already said or conveyed in their essays. Writing letters of recommendation is an art and it can make or break a student, especially if they go into early admissions! Doing it can stress me out very easily!" Camden keeps explaining himself, while doing his best to deflect her attention from gambling.
"Look, if it's Tulane..."
"I know about the non-holistic nature of in-state auto-admit under early decision. Only one of these kids actually do it, and I had to sign the early decision agreement of that student! Once that was done, I sent that student's transcript to Tulane!" Camden refers to Imélie without mentioning her by name.
"Honey, you're overworked. Hurry up and go to bed!"
"I don't need you to tell me what to do!"
Fingers crossed that she doesn't check up on the credit card statement! He sighs, paying back the card before going to bed.