Gemotions

She hunched over the worn, wooden table in the library, the flickering fluorescent light doing little to dispel the gloom. Her textbook lay open, the words swimming before her eyes. Every sentence felt like a fresh wound. She kept re-reading the same paragraph, unable to retain a single word.

The rejection letter from the university financial aid office sat nestled amongst the pages. The scholarship she had been awarded, the one that had allowed her to breathe, was a mistake. They were withdrawing the funds.

A coldness settled in her bones, a chilling awareness of the precariousness of her situation. She felt a profound sense of isolation, a feeling of being adrift without a lifeline. Her carefully constructed plans, the dreams she had nurtured, suddenly felt flimsy and distant. She felt her hope draining away with each passing second.