Gemotions

Maya clutched the worn copy of *The University Chronicle*. Her face burned. There, under the heading "Exceptional Essays," was it. Her application essay, the one she’d poured her heart into, now public fodder. She felt a tightening in her chest, a difficulty breathing that made her want to flee. It had been years since she wrote it, years since she’d even *thought* about her childhood, the subject of the essay.

She quickly folded the newspaper and jammed it into her bag. Lunch with her friends would be torture. She usually loved Tuesdays. But now, all she wanted to do was curl up in bed and pull the covers over her head. The words, so intimate, so vulnerable, now felt like a spotlight on her flaws.