Gemotions

The phone wouldn't stop ringing. Each buzz vibrated through Emily’s entire body. The essay, her essay, was now a teaching tool. Every prospective student and their parents would be reading her story. She didn't want the recognition. She wanted the privacy.

She paced the length of her tiny apartment, the floorboards creaking under her steps. The words on the screen, those carefully constructed phrases, seemed to mock her. She felt like a specimen, labeled and categorized.

She stared out the window, at the city below. All those unknown faces, all those potential judgements. She felt constricted, unable to breathe properly. She grabbed her coat and her keys, needing to escape the confines of her own mind and the four walls that felt like a prison.