Kanisk.C

Please do not touch the model...

We will release decisions at 3:00, they said. We will email you, they said.  I'm not nervous, I told myself. I'm fine.  I was in physics, writing a paper for extra credit. The paper was on the photoelectric effect, which had evidently won Einstein a Nobel prize. I had no idea how to understand what I was writing about...much less how to explain it. That, and I was also a nervous wreck.  I glanced at the clock. 2:59. I'm fine, I told myself. I started paraphrasing part of a Wikipedia article while blasting music through my headphones. Between the music, the nerves, and the perplexing topic I was struggling to comprehend, my hand started shaking.  I put down my pencil and read what I had written. "Due to the nature of the incident of the indicated the instance that..." I blinked a few times. I started to erase what I had written, but when that proved too difficult I crossed it out instead.   Finally I pushed everything aside and just stared at the clock.  2:59 PM.  2:59 PM. 2:59 PM.  2:59 PM.  2:59 PM.  3:00 PM.  3:00 PM, and nothing happened…! 3:01 PM. Nothing... 3:02 PM. Nothing...? 3:03 PM. Nothing. No email. I must have been deferred. Or maybe they were just late. Too late for comfort. Yeah...no, why would they be that late? They said 3:00 PM. That’s what they said. If it was good news, surely they would have sent it on time? Alright, I thought. I can handle being deferred. Yeah, no problem. I would move on. No tears. No regrets. Some other school will want me. I'll be fine.  The email came at 3:25. 

The tears came like clockwork...

-Yehong Zhu