Gemotions

The news arrived via a curt phone call from the financial aid office. The denial of the scholarship. The tone of the person on the other end was professional and impersonal, the words a detached and clinical assessment. She felt a sudden, sharp pain in her temple, a headache blooming with alarming speed.

She dropped the phone. It clattered to the floor, forgotten. She felt her face flush, then drain of all color. The room started to spin. She grabbed onto the edge of her desk for support, her knuckles white.

She sank into her chair, her body trembling. The world around her seemed to shrink, the walls closing in. The implications of this rejection were enormous. Her future, once bright and clear, had become clouded with uncertainty.