Waiting Game

These past few weeks have been hectic. At the end of February, I braved the snow walls and took a bus to Boston for a teachers hiring conference. For two days, I sat in a in a conference room in my ill-fitting suit and blister-causing heels typing my thesis while waiting to see if any schools wanted to interview me. There were representatives from over 200 prep and boarding schools in the room across the hall, scrolling through our candidate files and deciding who was worthy of an interview. “This is basically speed dating,” one man said to me. “I think I might be very bad at speed dating,” I told him. Luckily I got to talk to 9 different schools, and I left feeling like it was worthwhile. 

I added the final revisions to my thesis on the 5 hour bus ride back to New York, and sent it to the printer as soon as I got home. Then I had to wait for it to be printed over the weekend so I could turn it in that Monday. I turned in 206 pages of a book draft, and even though it might double in length after I add everything in the next draft, at least it’s a start. And now I just have to wait for the list of professors I can choose from to be my thesis readers, and after that I’ll have to wait for my thesis conference in May. 

Including the schools I’ve interviewed with and the schools I’ve applied to online, I’ve now applied to over 30, from Miami all the way to Vermont. Now I just have to wait for responses, wait to see where I’ll be this time next year. 

I had all four wisdom teeth removed at the beginning of January, and since then, I’ve been waiting for my mouth to feel normal. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting. For the past month, I’ve just been trying to hold out until I could get home to do X-rays to see what’s going on. 

I’m a patient person (most of the time). But so much waiting is exhausting, especially when there’s no guaranteed pay-off. But we’ve been waiting so many months for spring, and the temperatures in New York last week were finally in the 40s/50s. Spring break is finally here. Daylight savings has finally started. All of the X-rays are fine, and there’s nothing wrong with my teeth. The first day of spring is tomorrow. Maybe it’s not much, but these are the much-needed reminders that our patience is worth it.