Mid-July 2005

She was sitting out on her old, childhood swing set when it happened. The clouds were rolling in over the horizon and she was sketching the stormy summer day as it happened. She had already been turned down to two of the schools she sent portfolios to and she was starting to feel increasingly pessimistic about the last two since they were notoriously the most difficult of the four.

The past month and a half, she had spent the days inside of her mother’s house, anxiously awaiting the mailman to come by, hoping that she would receive a letter of good news from someone – from anyone, really. She had underestimated how lonely her life would be without Roy. She felt lost not being asked to go along to a football charity event, or an awards program of some sort every couple of weeks. She could have never imagined her daily life void of spending her time doing things that involved Roy’s football team or something else of that nature. Instead, her days now were filled with sitting on her mother’s old sofa and watching re-runs of old sitcoms like Married with Children and Roseanne and waiting for an acceptance letter.

She had not really felt depressed since breaking it off with her fiancé, she just felt…empty. He had been a part of her life for so long and now what? She felt like she was a high school senior all over again at age twenty six. She was waiting to be accepted to a school of higher education, she was secretly dreading running into Roy – the high school sweetheart – again, and every day that passed on that she was living with her mother – even though she loved her mother – she was hoping that she would find a way out and into a new life.

It was five thirty in the afternoon and she heard a loud clap of thunder as her mother called her from the back porch. She dropped a stick of charcoal and turned around to see her mother standing in the doorway waving a large manila envelope in her hand.

“Where is it from?” she asked hopefully as she stood up and tucked her sketchbook under her arm.

“NYU,” her mother replied holding the envelope in front of her.

“Really?” she asked as she started walking towards the door as a couple of fat raindrops started to fall from the sky. She quickly grabbed the envelope from her mother as she ducked into the house as the rain started to fall in torrents.

She rushed into the living room and sat down on the sofa and threw the unopened envelope onto the coffee table.

“Are you going to open it?” her mother asked as she sat down next to Pam.

“I…I don’t want to,” Pam replied nervously.

“Why not?”

“What if I’m not accepted?”

“What if you are?”

“This is a great program, mom! I’ve already been turned down from the others…”

“You have one other that you’re still waiting to hear from, so if this turns you down, there’s still one more out there,” her mother coaxed.

“But…this…” she pointed to the envelope.

“Should I open it?” Pam nodded furiously. Her mother grabbed the envelope off of the table and slowly ran her finger under the sealed edge.

“Wait…” Pam stopped her. She took a deep breath. “No, keep going.”

Her mother pulled out the letter and read it over slowly.

“What does it say?” Pam asked anxiously, unable to look at the papers in her mother’s hand, unable to look anywhere but down in her lap.

“I think…” her mother read on and stopped.

“You think what?” Pam asked, her head darting towards her mother. “What do you think? What does it say?” Her knees bounced up and down anxiously. A wide smile crossed her mother’s face.

“You’re in,” she said.

“I’m in?” Pam asked in disbelief.

“You’re in.” Pam squealed in excitement and jumped up off of the couch, pulling her mother up with her and wrapping her in a tight embrace.

“You’re kidding, right?” she yanked the papers away from her mother’s hands and looked over them carefully. “Holy…” a huge smile spread across her face and she clutched the papers close to her chest. “I can’t believe it!” She pulled her mother into another tight embrace and squealed against her shoulder as she tried to prevent tears of joy from streaming down her cheeks.

“Congratulations!”

“I can’t believe this,” Pam said with excitement. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe this. I am going to New York. I, Pam Beesly, I am going to New York. I am moving to New York. I’m going to be an artist! I’m going to be like…uh…I’m going to be an artist! In New York!” She hugged her mother again.

“I think this is cause for a celebration,” her mother said as she rushed into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of wine from the counter.

“Definitely!” Pam exclaimed as she skipped happily around the kitchen. She felt like she was 17 again and getting accepted to college. She felt like she was 21 again and getting proposed to by Roy. She felt excited, she felt hopeful and for the first time in months, years even. Maybe finally, finally she was getting exactly what she wanted.