Gemotions

The sterile white walls of the hospital room seemed to close in on her. She clutched the crumpled admission papers, the ink blurring with her tears. The scholarship, which had promised medical school and a future dedicated to healing, was rescinded. A bureaucratic mix-up; she didn’t qualify. Her carefully constructed plans, years in the making, now lay in shattered fragments around her. She felt like a ship without a sail, adrift on a vast and unforgiving sea. Her breath hitched, shallow and rapid.