We await your owl by no later than May 1.

It's midnight on a school night, and I just can't sleep; not, in and of itself, an unusual occurence, but it rarely because I am bouncing off the walls in ecstatic disbelief. I can't believe it. I got into MIT and CalTech! Please, allow me one Little Miss Sunshine-style scream.


EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!


A teacher I know very well, and one of my mother's coworkers, commented that it's a little like getting a golden ticket. The metaphor is very apt. In fact, it's a little like opening two unrelated chocolate bars in the same day and happening upon two golden tickets. You can hardly even process having two at once. Too amazing. I dunno if I'll ever feel quite normal again.

* * *

A too-brief thanks is in order, because I know a couple people read this: thanks, mum, dad, everyone who gave me advice on admissions essays, everyone who told me to stop dawdling and get it all in, everyone who gave pep talks when I sighed despondently and bemoaned admissions statistics, everyone who told me I'd do all right. But especially thanks to mum and dad, who've put up with my increasingly testy stressed-out-ness, who've paid for every application, score report, and AP test, and who keep telling me you go where you want, we'll figure it out. I love you guys so much.

And thanks to everyone who's said congrats to me in just the past 2 days: news travels so quickly! Haha, thank youuu, I am so happy to have people to share this with and who are glad for me. (And who know what MIT is; telling kids at school has already necessitated a few explanations. "I got into MIT! And Caltech!" "Is that good?" "...it's kinda like Harvard and Stanford for geeks." "Ah.")

* * *

Truly, I feel like I just got my Hogwarts letter that I've always been convinced got lost in the mail when I was 11. An invitation to a magical, mystical place full of wizards and learning and misfits like me. Except instead of magical aptitude, we all expressed signs of mild social awkwardness and a tendency to spend too much time in the science section of bookstores.

Harry Potter got until July 31 to reply to his admission; I have only until May 1, but I really can't complain. I couldn't be happier. I'm no Hermione Granger, but I feel like she must've, on that day she realized magic was real.

Some day in the not-too-distant future I might be whisked off to one of these places; I can't help but picture sailing on rickety boats over some lake, being hurried, nervous and drenched, into the Great Hall, stumbling up to the front and having the sorting hat tell me where I ought to be...

CalTech, actually, does have Houses, and a Sorting; though I understand it's more of a sorting week than a sorting ceremony. And hopefully no mind-reading hats. But still. The analogy is getting uncanny.


Look mum! I'm not a Muggle after all. :P