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This spring, as it attempts every year, brings the air of new beginnings and new opportunities. As the season is quickly passing us by, the anticipation continues to build for those of us who are still awaiting admissions decisions concerning the fall 2020 academic term. With the blanket uncertainty of what our new realities will be, one must question if there will even be such a thing as classrooms as we knew them, come September.

However, chances are you haven’t been informed otherwise of anything either way. So as the days pass more and more quickly, maybe your mind is wandering relentlessly on loop. Maybe you’re a master avoider, actively pushing it out of your mind. Or maybe you just worry yourself confused.

If you find yourself struggling between keeping the faith and feeling small or anxious, please know that I see you! You are not alone. Whether this is your first go at the higher education matriculation process, or you are a seasoned vet in this thing, you are much bigger than your application. Right now it is crucial to remember that this process allows but a glimpse into the talent and full-dimensional reality of your existence. So much of who you are and what you have to offer can get left out of the parameters of these applications.

When I first began applying to master degree programs, what we now refer to as the coronavirus (COVID-19) was a mere whisper compared to the all-consuming seemingly never-ending tidal wave of terror that we are weathering now. So much of what I knew to be normal still was normal then. By the time I finished applying to the programs that I chose, New Orleans was only days into its mandated stay-home order.

The current emphasis and necessity of virtual gatherings is a new way we are forging, questioning, grappling and imagining new ways of surviving and existing. Yet still, we are straddling the status quo, the normality of yesterday that is now furthest from us than many of us have ever experienced in all our years on this planet. So we who are awaiting decisions quite relevant to our futures have no choice but to wait as patiently as we possibly can.

If you’re like me, currently out of work while at home, you don’t have a whole lot to distract you or keep you from remembering that as April is coming to an end, decisions are either eventually coming soon or indefinitely postponed. It is critical to remember that you can still plan, and you can still imagine beyond the limit of the sky, what the rest of your year looks like, admission or otherwise.

Do not allow the agony of waiting to diminish you. Please remember that there is hardly ever only one way to do or accomplish something. Please keep in mind, academia is a tool, not the gatekeeper to possibility, potential or success. Please keep in mind it’s OK to take time to put together plans B, C and D, anticipating the potential possibility of admission decisions that don’t go in your favor.

Accept that if an admission decision does not go your way this time, it is not at all a measure of you, but rather a divine communication (from God, the universe, Newton’s Law of Motion, or whatever you and your belief systems are into) that the timing you had in mind for this plan for your life is not quite right or ready. Also accept that even if admissions decisions do go your way, the extensive obstacles we are sure to face due to the consequences of this pandemic may very well make it so that your academic plans are disrupted.

No matter what, please remember to look yourself square in the face and speak affirmations. You have to know that nothing can stop you. It begins and ends with the conviction of your beliefs. Bet on you no matter what.

Accept that as far as this current goal is concerned, you have done your part at this point and it is all the way out of your hands now, but nothing that is yours will ever pass you by. Stay safe and faithful that your gifts are infinite and your greatness is inevitable. You are unstoppable.

Chioma Gathoga-Ogbuike

Writing since November 2019 · 2 stories contributed