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Acceptance Letter

Riley

When I got hoh the etting turned down by Yale via their website portal, I wasn’t too excited to read any other denials I hadn’t applied to too o run off and attend a four-year university right now My older brother, Paul, said that I wasn’t ready to live on my own yet He wanted me to stay at home until I was an old maid He ay too overprotective after our parents died He still thought of irl that I hen he left for college, and he never let go of it I’d been through rowth spurt, but he still called me Squirt

Squirt’s major aer, not that surprising in LA So Paul didn’t understand my desire to beco to him that here you went to share pictures of your children, not an advertising platfor to go into social irl’s dreams of stardom

I sorted the mail into two piles: my letters and Paul’s bills I knew that I had to leave theet tense when he got home and saw the pile of bills

At the bottoe yellow envelope that made my heart beat faster Denials were short and polite They arrived in thin envelopes This envelope was huge and fat

I took a look at the door Paul would be home soon I needed to move to my room I took my mail into my room, even the dumb Valu-Pak envelope I closed my door before I opened the fat yellow envelope The return address said University of SoCal, one of the few colleges that allowed undergraduates

I tore it open, even thoughPlease Please

I looked at the letter on the top which started with “Congratulations”

I didn’t know exactly what happened, but oneatWas this letter real?

When the rooh to read the rest of thethe letter, which said how excited they were to adh all the first-year residential ue and make a lot of decisions

I sed hard when I looked at e stretch to try to cover the cost, even with the generous tuition help they gave to National Merit Finalists, which I was Even if I worked e, there was no way that I could afford any of it I didn’t care I logged into their website and officially sent my acceptance of admission, money be damned

I heard the front door open Paul’s footsteps thumped into our home “Riley?”

“I’ure out a safe place to stash my acceptance letter I norot ho attention I looked around I saw the door beginning to open and shoved it under inal, I knew, but I was pressed for time

“Hurry up We’re going out for drinks with Des to miss happy hour”