Gemotions

"Another mistake," Sarah muttered under her breath, staring at the screen. The email, detailing the error with her scholarship, seemed to mock her. She should be ecstatic about the upcoming semester, but instead, she just felt a hollow space growing in her core. The funds she was relying on were gone.

She pushed back her chair, the wheels squeaking on the linoleum floor of her tiny apartment. The air was close, stale, the scent of instant noodles lingering from last night's dinner. She felt lethargic, her body heavy with the knowledge that she'd need to find work and that her studies were now jeopardized.

The prospect of her next steps felt like climbing a mountain. She knew the climb was real, and that made the exhaustion feel so much worse.