Do you check your mailbox every day? Your e-mail inbox? The school’s website for your application status? Feel like everyone is getting accepted and you haven’t hear anything? Welcome to the waiting game. It sucks… good luck!

Waiting for a decision letter can be utterly stressful, I mean this is your future and it all lies on an 8.5 x 10 inch piece of paper…or if you get lucky the envelope it comes in, and ultimately you have no control. It’s scary. It’s horrible. It’s exciting.

I remember when I got my first college acceptance letter. I had a horrible day at school and then it got worse with a long work shift. I came home, I was exhausted and cranky. The letter was left, propped up on my kitchen table. It came in a normal business envelope, no indication on the envelope what so ever at all. I stopped dead in my tracks and even though it was close to midnight, I dropped everything on the kitchen floor. I remembered what I had seen on TV and in the movies, this was not the envelope I wanted. I took a few deep breathes and told myself that it just wasn’t meant to be. I closed my eyes and ever so slowly opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. I opened my eyes and there it was, Congratulations, printed at top. I thought my knees where going to give out. I quickly gathered my things and went to my room. I read that letter over and over making sure it wasn’t a mistake.

Looking back now and comparing that to what I am going through now with waiting on graduate school decision letters, I realized I have only gotten worse at the waiting game. I check constantly. waiting for anything. The other day I got an e-mail confirming that my application was complete, they gave me a generic timeline of 6-8 weeks. I was a wreck. So what do I do? I get busy.When I was high school, I was so busy that I didn’t have much time to agonize, now I have the internet at my immediate disposal at all times (thank you smart phones). So I try to not think about, I distract myself with all the work I need to do. Its like the old cliche, a watched pot never boils. Constantly watching your mailboxes, both physical and virtual, and your letter will take forever. As soon as you stop watching, then it will come.