CHAPTER 90

"I… I…"

"Sam?" Miguel asked gently, as he watched his girlfriend's voice hitch in her throat, unable to speak for a second. Him, Eli and Demetri all looked at Sam, nervous for her.

"I got in." Sam uttered in a voice not much louder than a whisper, still reeling in shock. Immediately, there was an uproar amongst the other four teenagers. Miguel pulled her into a tight embrace and Demetri and Eli hugged her too.

"Congratulations!" Demetri exclaimed. "You did it! Columbia!"

"Yeah, that's awesome, Sam." Eli agreed. A wide smile began to spread across Sam's face as she realised the magnitude of what she had done. She had done it! She had gotten into Columbia University, one of the best universities not only in the country, but on the planet. She would be spending the next 4 years in New York, receiving an education that would propel her to great heights in the field of Psychology. The dream of helping an innocent teenager who had gone through what she had with her PTSD and anxiety was looking more and more real.

"I'm so proud of you. You so deserve this." Miguel murmured, kissing her and giving her another embrace for good measure.

"Thanks, guys." She said, unable to wipe the massive, cheesy grin off her face. "Who's going next?"

"I'll go." Demetri volunteered, picking up his own envelope from MIT. "I have a good feeling about this one."

He slowly unwrapped the envelope, hesitating for a moment as he pulled out the letter. This meant so much to him, more anyone could've imagined. Although he had plenty of back-up plans, plenty of other acceptances to fall back on if this one came back as a rejection, Demetri knew that he couldn't fail. He had sacrificed so much, been put through so much shit by bullies, and the way that he had gotten through it all had been by picturing his end goal: MIT. It was what had gotten him through the swirlies, the beatdowns, the verbal abuse. And so failing to reach that end goal was something Demetri knew would crush him.

Little did he realize as he opened the folded letter that he had nothing to worry about at all. As soon as he had read the first sentence, he nearly dropped the paper in excitement.

"I got in too!" He exclaimed. Once again, cheers erupted from the other 3 teenagers, all of whom were over the moon for their friend. He was MIT bound, and nothing was going to stop him from conquering the world like he always knew he could.

Two envelopes opened; two successful college offers. There were 2 of them left, and Eli was the first to pick up his envelope, now feeling more confident after seeing his best friend getting in. Albeit for different programs, Eli and Demetri were both applying to MIT as their first choice, with Eli going for Architecture, so the fact that Demetri had gotten in was definitely a confidence booster for him.

Sure enough, as Eli opened the letter, he found himself reading the exact same writing as Demetri's, the school announcing the good news in the very first sentence. Dear Mr. Moskowtiz, we're delighted to inform you that you've been accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Class of 2024… that's all Eli needed to read before looking up.

"I made it." He told his friends. They were all delighted for their friend too. Though he had gotten slightly off-course in the past, Eli was a fundamentally good person, and he deserved every good thing he got. He was fiercely loyal, courageous and all kinds of incredible to all of his friends, so they were all ecstatic for him.

That was it. 3 acceptances. There was only one left… Miguel's. The most uncertain of all of their situations, and so his hands began to shake as he held the envelope in his hands, preparing to unwrap it. Before he did, Sam squeezed his hand in her own in the same way he had when she opened her letter.

"You got this." Sam encouraged him. Miguel, however, didn't share the same confidence that she had about him. His letter wasn't just about acceptance. But it was about whether or not he had been selected for a prestigious scholarship that would pay most of his tuition for him. Countless candidates applied for it annually, with only a select few actually receiving it. The odds weren't great at all, especially for someone who didn't do many extra-curricular activities apart from Karate. It all came down to the interview Miguel had had with the Scholarship committee a little over a month ago…

"Miguel Diaz?"

Miguel stood up, his heart rattling in his chest. He found himself sitting in the waiting room outside of the University Counsellor's office in West Valley High, where the Scholarship Committee from Stanford University was holding interviews. Miguel was one of 2 students in West Valley applying for the scholarship, so he was forced to wait until the person before him was finished before it was finally time for his own. While the waiting had been agonizing beforehand, now that it was finally time for his interview, Miguel wanted nothing more than for time to freeze to a halt. He was getting extremely nervous, the magnitude of the situation beginning to hit him. This interview would determine so much for him: not only his chances at the scholarship, but his chances at going to college as a whole.

He forced himself to push the nervous down, at least for a moment, as he stood up and faced the interviewer.

"That's me."

"Hi Miguel, I'm your admissions counselor, Patrick Williams. Let's go talk in my office."

Miguel followed the counselor to his office and took a seat opposite him, glancing nervously at the man as he waited for the interview to begin. This guy looked like he was barely out of college himself, not looking that much older than Miguel, so this was a small comfort for him at least. There was nothing more nerve-wracking than seeing an elderly interviewer and knowing just how many interviews he had conducted in his lifetime, just how many applicants Miguel would be stacked up against in contention.

After a moment of small talk, the interview finally began, with the interviewer sitting back in his chair slightly and looking him up and down.

"So, tell me about yourself, Miguel. What was your upbringing like?" The interviewer asked. Miguel took a deep breath. Here it goes.

"Well I grew up in L.A, raised by my mom and my grandmother, as my father was never around. We moved around quite a bit around the city growing up for my mom's work. She sacrificed so much for me growing up. That's partly why I want to get this scholarship and go to Stanford… I want to make her proud, show her that all of her sacrifice is worth it."

"I'm glad to hear that." The interviewer replied. "Now… I read through your personal essay. Immaculately written, I must say. It says in the essay that it was at age 15, when you began Karate, that your life really began to change. Walk me through all of that."

Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, I, uh… when my family moved to Reseda at the beginning of my sophomore year of high school, I was getting harrassed and bullied by some guys at my school. My friends got the same treatment, but I wasn't strong enough to do anything about it, help them or myself. Until I met my neighbor, who turned out to be a Karate Champion. Not only did he teach me how to fight, but he also taught me valuable lessons in how to be a human being, how to be a man. He showed me how to stand up for those I care about, how to fight for what I believe in, how to have the confidence to put my foot down and argue against something. And alongside all of that, he helped me win the local Karate championship in the Valley."

"Congratulations." The interviewer said. "That teacher of yours seems like quite the character. It's nice to hear that you found someone to teach you all of this, especially without a father around growing up."

Miguel nodded.

"He's the best. Especially last year, when I suffered a serious back injury and had lower back paralysis. We didn't have the money for treatment, so he took it upon himself to create his own recovery plan to help me walk again."

"I read about that in your essay, and a bit on the news actually. Tell me more about the injury, about what happened." The interviewer asked him. Miguel gulped nervously. He had hoped that the school fight wouldn't come up, as he was afraid that it would ruin his chances of getting the scholarship. However, given that the man had already done background research on him, Miguel figured that he already knew. No sense in lying now.

"I got involved in a fight that I shouldn't have. I let myself get dragged in, and it was the worst mistake I've ever made. I paid for it dearly, as I ended up with a lower back injury bad enough that I was told there's a good chance I'd never walk again."

"That can't have been easy." The interviewer murmured.

"It wasn't. It was the hardest moment of my entire life. I thought for a while that my life was over. That I wouldn't be able to do anything by myself for the rest of my life."

The interviewer nodded thoughtfully.

"Well I'm glad you're okay now." The interviewer replied. "Look, I know you're probably expecting a long, drawn-out interviewer. I'm going to keep it short and sweet though. I have only 1 question for you: why do you think you deserve this scholarship? What should attract us to you over any of the other candidates?"

"Um… I would have to say my work ethic." Miguel replied, summoning more and more confidence as he spoke. He knew that this was it. He needed to give everything he had right now. "To use my injury as an example, there were times that I genuinely believed that I might never walk again. That I might never again be able to do even the simplest of tasks without help, things as basic as cooking, cleaning, using the bathroom… I couldn't do anything. It took everything I had to manage to fight myself out of the situation. It took 3 months of severely physically and emotionally draining hard work to finally walk again, and even longer than that to manage to return to my peak physical level. But I made it. I didn't stop working for even a second. No matter how unlikely at times I thought recovery might be, I never stopped working. I can guarantee that even if there's a candidate for this scholarship with slightly better grades than me, they're not going to work a fraction as hard as I am during the 4 years at Stanford. That's why I believe I deserve this scholarship, Mr. Williams."

The interviewer processed all of the information, staring at Miguel a while longer, before smiling at him and nodding.

"OK, I think I've got all I need. Thank you, Miguel. You should hear back either way with the result in the next 4-6 weeks."

4-6 weeks had passed, and Miguel had indeed heard back from the Scholarship committee. Their answer was written in the letter that was resting in his hands, the letter he didn't have the courage to open just yet.

Closing his eyes and saying a silent prayer, Miguel opened the letter and with a trembling hand, pulled out the white sheet of A4, unfolding it and beginning to read. Just like Sam, Demetri and Eli, Miguel was silent for a moment as he read the entirety of the letter, before looking up at them.

"Well… what does it say?" Eli asked eagerly.

"I didn't get it…"