Clocks tick and twitch second after second as the keyboard ricochets like rainfall. 11:15… brush up intro… 11:32… quickly patch conclusion… 11:48… sprint to Common App… 11:58… cover up blatantly obvious grammar flukes… 11:59(59)… hit the button. Legs oscillating, blood oozing to the face, fingers rubbing in sweat typify another panicked senior racing to the college application deadline. Three and a half years of scholarly, brainy, humanitarian, artistic, scientific, and athletic achievements plus a little explanation of some extenuating circumstance barely squeezed into sixty hundred and fifty words. Going through the checklist, an item was inadvertently neglected. The mere realization inundates the applicant’s head with a dreadfully unfamiliar paranoia, but the numbers in the screen’s bottom-right digital clock already changed.
A new day has begun. A new chapter of life will soon begin, though the bearings are unclear. Just another two months of anxious waiting.
February 1st was the last deadline for research and liberal arts universities around the country. We wish all seniors the best of luck during this process.
Image by Nina Enagonio, MoCo Student staff artist