Assorted Afflatuses

I hate being sick. Especially when I happen to fall ill just before my birthday and just in time for me to deprive myself of the chance to host my school's Rose Festival Ambassador selection ceremony. Yes, I can attest to the fact that it is immensely pleasurable to spend one's eighteenth birthday in bed with a runny nose, sore throat, and 250 milligrams of antibiotics floating around in one's bloodstream.

Granted, I do feel much better today, though this disease could not have picked a more inopportune time to ravage my sinuses. After all, while I need only take the antibiotics for five days, according to my doctor, I am still considered medically sick for ten. In other words, I will spend the entirety of my spring vacation with a sinus infection.

It could have been much worse, I suppose. I might have been in China right now, had my parents followed through with their plan to go there for our spring break vacation. The Chinese probably have adequate doctors and the like, but even when I was in France over the summer, I had the sense that medical care in the United States really is the best.

But I digress. A few days ago — probably when I was more sick and bedridden earlier in the week — Princeton had the courtesy to inform me that application decisions will go online at 5 PM eastern on 29 March. This does two things. Firstly, it lends even more credence to my argument that, of the many schools I applied to, Princeton is the best. Secondly, and more importantly, it makes me very nervous. I know I have a very good chance of being admitted, but with an 8 percent acceptance rate, it does make me just the slightest bit squeamish.

I hope that the illustrious people at Princeton will have some mercy on me and send me a big white envelope with very good news inside.