Taylor Callen mailed in her college application nearly three months ago and today would be the day that decided her fate. Today, college decisions were due to arrive in the mail and Taylor had never been more terrified. Everything she has worked for and everything she has been planning is riding on that sealed letter arriving any moment now.
Taylor sat down at her family’s dark, mahogany dinner table and pondered her future. What if she didn’t get accepted? She had only applied to the one school. Since the school she did apply to happen to be the school of her dreams, she saw no other reason to apply elsewhere. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and dreaded the moment the mail would arrive. Why am I so worried? Of course I was accepted, there are no other options. She was slowly sipping her refreshment when she heard the distinct sound of the mail being pushed through the slot in her front door.

Too terrified to move, Taylor sat at the dinner table for a few more moments. The only thing she could think about was how the letter laying on her entry way tile would decide the rest of her life. She knew once she got up to retrieve that letter nothing would be the same. Realistically, there were only two roads she could take.

That first road would be her acceptance into her dream school and the prospect of her moving away from home. If that were the outcome, the outcome she hoped for, she could see herself packing for school. She could smell the musty scent of a college dorm room. The same dorm room that students, much like her, had stayed in for many years before. She could see the imposing brick building, her dream for as long as she could remember, looming ahead of her.

Sadly, however, there is still that second road. The road that made her stomach knot and sweat trickle down her back; the road that came with her not being accepted. She could imagine what life would be like if she were rejected from the only important future she could think of. She could always go to the local community college and transfer to her dream school later. However, the prospect of that future frightened her. For as long as she was old enough to realize what it was she wanted in life, she had known she wanted to move away. Tears misted her eyes at the thought of being forced to endure another year in the same town she was born in. All she ever wanted was to leave her town and explore the world outside of everything she had ever known.

Leaving her spot at the dinner table she gathered her courage and slowly treaded to the front entryway. Standing above the pile of white mail against the tan colored wood floor, she bent down and retrieved the only envelope that appealed to her. The college seal stamped in the top left corner solidified the importance of the letter inside. Tearing open the envelope in a haste to finally know what the future holds, she unfolded her decision letter.