Gemotions

The email arrived like a punch to the gut. *Congratulations! Your essay has been selected...* He slammed his laptop shut, the metallic click echoing in the otherwise quiet apartment. It had been years. Years since he'd poured his heart out, or what he'd thought was his heart, into that essay. Now, some faceless editor was going to plaster it across the internet for everyone to dissect.

He walked to the window, staring at the blurred city lights. He felt a tightness in his chest, a slow burn. He remembered the admissions officer’s words, the thinly veiled pity in her voice when she’d rejected him. *“Unfortunately, we have to make difficult choices…”*

He gripped the windowsill until his knuckles turned white. What did they know about difficult choices? He’d scrapped his ambitions, taken a soul-crushing job, and now, this? Another reminder of his failures. He thought of all the other essays, the ones that got the golden tickets, and that feeling intensified.