Owning Mistakes

A gust of college application deadlines had filled the air. I was showing some signs of senior-year stress, breaking down in tears, and masking my lack of sleep with eye cream; nevertheless, I tried to complete my application. Whenever I complained about not being an oboe-playing poet or boring nerd genius, I was reminded that it was worth giving college application a try. After all, everyone goes through the same process to enroll in college.

I straightened my stiff back and neck, the results of hours of hunching over the documents. Then, I took a look at those documents again, believing my efforts…