I know I've quoted Sylvia Plath's fig tree metaphor before, but it's just so good.
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.
In a depressing sort of way, that is. So, um, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson sent me a letter.
I am pleased to inform you that you are the recipient of the Rensselaer President's Award. This award means that you will receive a state-of-the-art IBM laptop computer as part of your acceptance into the Rensselaer Class of 2009. ...The laptop will be my gift to you to celebrate your arrival at Rensselaer and to assist you in accomplishing your academic goals.
Oh, Shirley Ann. Thx.
And my Harvard interviewer called me to see if I had any questions and encourage me to visit the school. And she's just such a sweet lady, that I pretended I wanted to go to Harvard & pretended I had questions for her. Which prolly makes me a bad person, but I'm not good at rejecting people.
And I was looking through Penn's dorm pamphlet, and this one girl had my computer & my water bottle. & I was like OMG BFF.
But don't worry, even though Harvard & Penn both offered me a pretty sweet sum of money [though not quite as much as MIT, funnily enough], I'm fairly certain I want to go to MIT.
& I'm going up tomorrow for Campus Preview Weekend.
And can I just say:
PrincessMandi416: hey kate...its amanda maguire...do u remember me, we were friends back in the day at glenside weldon?
PrincessMandi416: i just saw on mit's website that u got in there, hey me too...is that not weird?
Except I wasn't online, so the messages were sent to my phone. And I was like HOLY FUCK. AMANDA!!!!!!!!11one
Oh, third grade. Those were the days.
I have two things to say: Sylvia Plath once lived in my house. Seriously.
Have fun at MIT! It seems like a very cool place.
Also, a third thing. I find it very entertaining that you chose to comment to a livejournal post from November. :)
Wow... That's really awesome. Felicitations!
How exciting. I really think I want to go to MIT also. Did they give you any merit-based aid or is it solely need-based? Because I'm quite sure I won't be able to go if it's the latter.
You're so smart. I'm envious.
IBM laptop? state-of-the-art? Sounds nice. Real nice.
i think MIT would be the best anyway
I want to visit you at MIT not at harvard. But it's still cool to say Kate Cheney got into harvard and she's like my BFF so it's pretty much like i got into harvard. And most people are like OMG nate you're so cool we can finally be friends. I guess that makes me a bad person for taking all of you hard earned schollarly credit
1) you quoted my favorite book
2) ewwwww sick college offers
3) I sooo remember amanda maguire!