Throw the pen down
Throw the paper too
Nothing is left
Nowhere to run
Nothing to go to
You've lost the game
You didn't get accepted.
Harvard
The name nearly throws itself at you.
Impressive, it stands alone
You've worked your whole life to get here
Only to have the door slammed shut in your face.
You tried.
But clearly not hard enough
You haven't slept in six years
You know every single fact about American History,
The Vatican,
And A.P. government
You are so well rounded you can't stop rolling
You spent every Friday night for the past eight years doing extra credit
You haven't spent a holiday with your family since sixth grade because you worked soup kitchens
And it was not enough.
Never enough.
Your parents always expected you to get in
Your teachers too
You were groomed from the start;
The right preschool
Private school with ridiculous A.P. courses
Night tutor
PSAT prep courses
SSAT prep courses for boarding school
SAT prep courses
ACT prep courses
Tutoring
Volunteering to tutor little kids
You planned every move
Every single move for the rest of your life
And it wasn't good enough.
You're no longer a child
You can't run and have mommy kiss this boo boo.
This is the rest of forever.
All you've ever known was Harvard
What do you do when you face the end of a lifetime
And the outcome is failure?