by Talpha Everette
I was standing outside of the store on vacation in Hawaii waiting tirelessly for my mom to get out of the shoe section when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I reached for it casually and then noticed a missed call notification followed by a voicemail.
I began to listen to the voicemail, and within 5 seconds I let out my first scream. It was a call from the UNC Global Gap Year Fellowship Office saying that I was accepted as a Global Gap Finalist! However as the call got more in-depth, the caller was explaining to me that he had been trying to get in contact with me for the past several days, and not only that but that the deadline to follow up with him was less than 48 hours way!
My heart started to pound: I was having a meltdown in the middle of Waikiki’s Strip Mall. But in my defense, I was on spring break vacation, so I was enjoying “off-grid” living.
Despite the urgency of the message, I commenced to scream excitedly in the middle of the street, just short of jumping up and down and doing a “singing in the rain” dance. My mother ran out of the store (I finally got her out) with a puzzled look on her face.
She said what she says all the time, “What did you do this time, Talpha?”
I didn’t know how to explain to her the opportunity that I had just been blessed with. As I started to speak, each word started to overlap with the other. By the look on her face, I found that I wasn’t making any sense to her. Then suddenly I froze, “I need to call him back!” I screamed.
As I ran down the street dialing numbers frantically, I looked back at my mom with a huge grin, she shook her head, laughing and gave a smirk as if to say, “Here she goes again.”