April Anxiety

You've heard about March Madness, how about April Anxiety? After watching all the red and blue t-shirts at the Louisville-Michigan game last night, I reflected on an April many years ago when I was applying to college for myself. The stress was so bad that it caused a car accident. That accident could be a metaphor for my writing career.

That windy April morning, I was a senior at Albuquerque Academy, waiting to hear from Cornell University. The future seemed bright, even though my grades didn't match my SAT or ACT scores. I certainly wasn't getting an athletic scholarship. As I drove to school, I played the traffic light game. If I didn't have to stop at the light, it was a good sign. If I had to stop it was a bad sign.  I don't remember what the count was but if memory serves I ran the intersection of Academy and Wyoming Boulevard, a few blocks from school and was in a fender bender.  I don't remember whose fault it was, but probably it was mine. No one was hurt, but my car wouldn't start.

The police officer drove me to school after the car was towed. It was humiliating when the cop  dropped me off fifteen minutes late in front of the principal's office. As for the aftermath of the accident, there was no litigation, but I could imagine a TV ad for a sleazy lawyer-- "I sue drivers worried about getting into college!"

Could this day get any worse? I already knew the answer. An accident was not a good sign.

That very afternoon, I received a thin letter from Cornell University saying that I was waitlisted. I thought that the wait list was the worst thing ever. I would not get in off the waitlist that Spring, but three years later I would finally make it into Cornell and eventually graduate. As for the car, it was totaled.

As this is allegedly a writing column, the metaphor is obvious. Stress can cause an accident, especially if you try to force the issue as I did. I thought that I had been rejected, but a few years later, I got what I wanted. Patience is indeed a virtue, I didn't have to win it all that very moment.
Unlike last night's basketball game, where regulation ended after forty minutes, the clock is still ticking so many years later. Still, I'm going to drive carefully today.