Admission -- an announcement

Spring is the season of admissions in the life of a senior in high school.  There are admissions into college, technical school, or  work.  Mostly, in our lives, there has been discussion and Facebook likes of where friends and family friends are heading in the fall for college.  For Houlder, this has been a pleasant and fun time with his admission into Kenyon since December as an Early Decision candidate. 

I studied Latin as a means of improving my SAT scores and thereby increasing my chances of admission into a "good"college.  It was not until 10th grade that I got the chance to study Latin.  The logic of the language raised my GPA as Latin came easily to me, and it made sense of so many of the "exceptions" in English grammar.   But, I am not sure it did much to boost my SATs because the link between the root and its current meaning were not always apparent to me.

Take a word like admission. 

Ad = to + mittere = to send or let go.  To me, to send to or to let go to is a simple translation. 

The first result of a google search of the word admission is the Tina Fey movie about getting into an Ivy with subsequent hits on stories about the intense competition to be admitted into a college.  But, pry deeper into a hardbound Webster or a web dictionary; admission's first definition is a statement acknowledging the truth. 

Telling the truth?  How did to send to or to let go to become to acknowledge a past of lies or misinformation?  Hence my trouble with SAT.

The second definition of a letting into a place, organization or institution seems easier to trace back to its roots. 

Eliminating higher education from the equation, where are places people are admitted?  Exclusive clubs, memberships in to associations based on dues, and the hospital come to mind. 

People are also admitted into studies so that scientists, researchers, and doctors can continue to further define, decode, and hopefully heal the human body and mind.  Maybe they even uncover the Truth.

In an effort to keep our friends and family informed and to hopefully remove stigmas for mental health, Frazer and I are moving to NIH in Bethesda, MD for a few months.  Frazer has been admitted into a 23 year long study exploring Childhood Onset Schizophrenia.  Frazer approves and wants me to blog about this because he does not have the burden of socially imposed shame. 

For now, if you have the time, please watch this 13 minute Ted Talk from the Head of National Institute of Mental Health at NIH.  In it, he explains how medicine and science have reduced mortality in many areas with the exception of mental health, and he mentions a study by Dr. Rapport regarding COS (Childhood Onset Schizophrenia).  This study is the one Frazer has gained admission.

It is the season for admission, graduations and commencements.  We begin.