Dear Maire,
“The Box.
It’s taunting me. This school can’t let me have one day in peace. I get it, I’m rejected, you don’t have to brag or give me false hope. I was practicing piano when both my parents call, ‘You have mail!’ I told them the day before that any school mail (i.e. acceptance letters) should be left for me to open. I rushed into the kitchen, and there was the small box. The 3rd school. The box was navy blue with gold lettering on most sides. JBS.
What? Is this a joke? I check the bottom of the box. It says my name and address. Mailed Feb 5th. Packaging costs: $5.75. Geesh, this school must really be rich to send consolation packages to 54 rejects. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Well, open it, silly! It was a Rubik cube. A Rubik cube with the name of the school, the four pillars- academics, arts, athletics, activities- and a quote. ‘If you think you can, you can.’ By the namesake of the school.
OK, what the actual *censored*? Is there a letter? No. There’s nothing but this box and this puzzle cube. Boy, was it a puzzle. Who did these people think they were? It’s plain cruel at this point. Immediately, I text my best friend (who’s also applying to the same school) [that’s you, Maire!] a generic text. Did you receive anything from them? She still hasn’t replied. They wouldn’t send out 54 rejection gifts, would they? That would be insanely expensive, but you never know.
The quote: “If you think you can, you can.” That’s not exactly a rejection quote. If it was, wouldn’t it be something like ‘If you fail, try, try again?’ Am I reading too far into this? Probably. I just don’t know. Maybe not.
My dad had a very different perspective. What if I’m accepted but without financial aid? Then the message is directed towards him. ‘If you think you can, you can.’ Except we can’t.
Either way, it’s infuriating. What kind of school sends their admission decisions via puzzle? Is that really the school you want to go to? Yes, we’ve already been over this. But, do you really? The message I got from that box was ‘look how special we are! Oh, you want to know whether or not you got in? That’s cute. We’ll give you little clues. *giggles*’.
So, there’s the box. It’s the lone thing on our butcher block counter. I’m staring at it. Because as much as I wish I knew what the boxes of my life mean, only time will tell.”
Sincerely,
Adi
AdiMaire. 