“We regret to inform you that you have not been admitted into-” you hold the letter in your hands as you review that same sentence over and over again. The tears swell up in your eyes and you come to the realization that your dream school has rejected your application for admission there. You begin to question what you did wrong in your high school journey that could have affected this decision. Maybe it was that you weren’t in any extracurricular activities or the decline in your grades after sophomore year. Immediately you regret all the stupid choices you made when instead you should have been focusing on your future.

    Luckily, I haven’t received that letter, nor would I ever want to. I began to fill out college applications in November and thought that I was on the right track. Then I began to ask my friends and people in my classes if they had already applied. “Yeah, I did like in October,” or “I actually did mine in August,” they would say, and suddenly I began to become paranoid all at once, especially when half of the people in my English class had already gotten an acceptance letter while I was barely applying. I started asking myself why I hadn’t done this sooner, but then I had a talk from our college adviser, Mr. E. He told me it was natural to have applied in the time I had and to not worry, I would have a response by late December/ early January, and I was at ease again. I filed my transcripts and got my recommendation letters in. I relaxed for the first time in my senior year of high school (they said it was supposed to be a breeze, right?). Then December came and left, and then the new year rang in with January… and I still had no responses from the 5 colleges I had applied to. Then it happened. I opened my mailbox on a Saturday afternoon, and the first thing I saw was a giant white envelope with the the Texas A&M University logo on the top corner. I was so ecstatic that I ran inside and ripped open the envelope. The first thing I saw was the sign declaring “I’m going to be an Aggie.” I couldn’t believe it, and it felt so great to breathe a sigh of relief again.

Although I’m not sure where I’m going to go to college yet, I’m not worried anymore of rejection. Now all I have to deal with is the fear of not getting scholarships. Great. Who said senior year was easy?