And this is why we had a strict budget for our condo in Boston. I refuse to be broke at the end of the month. We could afford a much, much higher mortgage but I won’t do it. I will not live paycheck to paycheck if I have the means to avoid it.

And our hypothetical kids will go to BPS even if they get stuck somewhere less than ideal. If something horrid is going on or it’s a really bad situation, then we’ll re-evaluate. But I’ve gone through enough with the LS and her older sister to know that bad on the outside does not actually mean bad on the inside or that they won’t be getting a great education. And vice versa — great on the outside does not always mean great on the inside.

I guess a lot of this is the concept of good enough. I’m okay with good enough. My choices really only have to work for myself and my family. And going through the college application process with the older sister of LS was eye opening. A lot of “great” schools have quite high acceptance rates. We seem to all freak out about the very, very top ones that don’t have high acceptance rates. But if you have good grades, you’ll get into what you want for the most part.