Lessons from 8th grade math

I’ve been at final exams-stress level for the past couple of days, since all I’ve been able to think about lately is that Berkeley letter that’s coming soon.

I was talking to my best friend about that this morning, and she felt the same.

“I want to know if I got in, but I don’t want to get the letter.”

So then we started talking about 8th grade math class, and how whenever we got a test back, we would hand them to each other. I would look at her test, and if she did well, I would give it to her. If she didn’t do well, I would just be quiet. She would do the same for me.

And she decided that colleges should send a person along with your letter to do that with you.

Genius, no?

It’s perfect. If you get a silent person holding a letter standing on your front porch, you know you didn’t get in, AND you don’t have to read your own rejection letter (over and over and over again, wallowing in a pool of your own tears, as I’m sure I’ll be doing in a week or so). But if you got in, you have a person to scream and jump up and down with!

I suppose you would also have a person to cry with if you didn’t get in, but I think the best part of that scenario would be not having to open and read the letter, or have to say anything. You would just know.

I think I’m gonna have my little brother read my letter for me. Or maybe I’ll just pick out a random stranger on the street….