SCHOOL DECISIONS!

Two weeks ago today, I was asked to check each school's website for admissions decisions. This reminded me of college decisions back in high school (actually 5 years ago exactly this time) when I had all 15+ school websites booked marked on my browser to facilitate the rapid refreshing of contents at a exponentially increasing rate as we approached the end of March. This time, I only had two schools (which was actually more intimidating given the odds), and there was a specific time of release (11 AM EST on 3/5), so thank the lord, I only started refreshing at 10:50 AM EST at a steady rate of 6 times per minute. 

For 5 minutes, nothing happened. Then at 10:56 AM, the link for ESCP Europe suddenly appeared. There was a list. A very long list pf names and ID numbers. I control F'ed my name. No results. I control F'ed my name again. No results. I control F'ed variations of my name, my Chinese name, my middle name, my last name, still NO RESULTS. This was not possible, I thought to myself. Out of the two schools, I was confident I would at least get into ESCP...if I didn't get into ESCP...well, then HEC would be impossible.

For 5 minutes, my mind went racing. What happened at the interview? Why? Why did they not accept me?? I prepared myself for the worst. "I'm so sorry bebe", my boyfriend texted through Facebook.

HEC's website went live at exactly 11 AM. I was shaking when I signed on to type in my name and birth date. I was still in a state of shock. I almost didn't want to know the answer...

"Congratulations. You are admitted to HEC Paris."

That's all it said. I had to read it over five times, and didn't actually believe what I was seeing until I received an official email 10 minutes later.

I couldn't believe it.

I WAS GOING TO PARIS.