Accepted to UVA!

Wow. So much has happened since my last post, and I'm still not sure that I've really processed it. I mean, I've talked it over with other people, I've sat here thinking about it, but I don't think I've really, REALLY processed it -- despite the fact that I've started a "To Do" list for it.

I was accepted to the University of Virginia. That exceptionally nice email that I got from Dr. Braden was the prelude to an even nicer and heart-stopping phone call that I received on March 30th. I was at work when the call came, and it literally took every ounce of self-control I had not to run around the place shrieking at the top of my lungs and laughing like a maniacal twit. Not that I haven't laughed a lot and giggled and grinned until my mouth felt as though it were going to fall into my lap. I've done lots of that. But very little shrieking . . . although I did let go one great, whacking "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" in the car when I left for the day, and started laughing, which one of my co-workers said she could hear down the street. . . .

Anyway. That's it; it's true. I'm going to UVA. I'm going to UVA! Screw the Emerald City! I'm going to be a in a full-time PhD program! With funding and everything! That's the part that I think I'm having the hardest time accepting. The fact that the 10th-ranked school in the country -- SERIOUSLY! -- is going to be investing over $200,000 in me, just so that I can earn my PhD, is a little bit hard to believe. That must mean that they have a lot of faith in me. And why? Based on what? A few letters of recommendation, a writing sample, a personal statement, some grades? Based on all that, they've decided that I'm worth the investment of all this time and money? The only other people who've invested that much in me were my parents -- and I don't think they tallied it all up at the beginning, when they first had me, like UVA has done. (In fact, I think if you asked my parents, they would probably say they'd have reconsidered it had they known how expensive -- both monetarily and emotionally -- I'd be.)

Which makes me wonder, what is wrong with these people? Have I pulled the wool over their eyes? What did they see in my application that made them believe that I would be worth the risk of the investment? This is an honest question, because I really don't know. But they didn't make their decision blind-folded. In his last email to me, Dr. Braden said:

I've very glad you will be joining us. It was clear from your file that your story is not the usual one, and that you've worked very hard over the last several years to fit yourself for top-level graduate work. The writing you sent us convinced us that you've done so successfully, and I'm very glad that things have worked out.

Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! VALIDATION! (Must be said in the elongated, overly-dramatic style of Braveheart.) I swear by all that is holy, I will remember this for the rest of my life. I really, truly will. It will be the first time that someone who has NEVER met me before, and has never heard my story, and knows nothing about me except what I've sent them, decided that I was intelligent, hard-working, and capable of doing something super-challenging. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! (Break for a few minutes of demented, Frankensteinian laughter.)

Excuse me. I'm back.

So, then, of course, after reading that, I have to wonder -- what did I say that convinced them that I was ready? I went back over what I had written in my personal statement, and I still don't know. What in there convinced UVA, but somehow didn't manage to say anything to the other schools to which I applied?

Who knows. Who cares? I'm going to UVA! I'm off to start a new future, with all sorts of interesting people. To learn and learn and learn and learn, and continue learning some more! It's a wonderful, wonderful place to be, with lots of things for me to see; I cannot wait until I get to go! It's off to the wonderful UVA!

Yeah. I'm a great big dork. But so what?! I'm no longer in limbo! I'll be a full-time grad student, in an excellent program, with excellent people, an excellent stipend, and exciting opportunities for an excellent future.

It's about freakin' time.