Two p.m. MST on December 8th, 2009, is a date and time I will never forget; nor will I forget the series of events which led up to and followed that point in time. Let me explain. I’ll start at the beginning.

On December 4th I received an e-mail from the Dartmouth admissions office explaining that my admissions decision letter would be available online starting at 4:00 EST on December 8th. This was quite a surprise, as I had not expected a decision before December 15th, the date they had set for admissions decisions.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that weekend. I did try, however, to occupy my time by working on a government term paper, by volunteering at Denver’s parade of lights for my National Honor Society and by playing racquetball with both my Dad and my best friend. Those things helped distract me, but I still couldn’t wait for Tuesday.

Monday came and went with no news.

I woke up Tuesday morning earlier than normal, ready for the day to begin. Before I left for school, I opened the Dartmouth application status webpage and also opened the e-mail containing my assigned username and password. I closed the screen, knowing that the next time I opened it, I would know the answer to the question which had dominated my thoughts ever since I had clicked the Dartmouth submit button.

At 2:00 p.m. I met my brother (a junior at my school) in the counseling office where I work during the last period of the day. We grabbed my laptop and headed to the empty foreign language resource center.

I opened up the screen, logged on to the school’s wireless network, typed in my username and password, clicked the return button, and stepped away. I couldn’t read the letter. I told my brother to read it aloud.

The first word which came out of my brother’s mouth was “Congratulations.” That was all I needed to hear. I’m not going to lie — I went a little crazy.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur, but it was full of sharing that moment with friends and family over the phone, on Facebook, and in person, when possible. Successes aren’t worthwhile without friends and family to share them with, and I am thankful to have the friends and family I do.

Dartmouth has a class of 2014 webpage on their site, which has everything from menus for the different dining halls to tips on how to deal with parents experiencing separation anxiety! The webpage also has a directory of all the admitted students, which lists their name, high school, e-mail address, and a personal message from them. Using this and the Dartmouth 2014 Facebook group, I have already been able to make contact with many of my future classmates.

Even as I become excited with things like getting to know my future classmates, I still have to remember that I have another semester left in high school. I still have responsibilities to follow through with, however tempting it may be to say, “Forget this! I’m already accepted to college!”

To all of those who also received a good early letter, congratulations! And to those of you who are still waiting, best of luck. I know your moment will come soon enough, and I promise, it’s worth all the hard work and the wait!