Hi, My name is Renee. It was the toughest summer I have ever had throughout my last 18 years, I bet. While most of my friends were at school, preparing together for the college entrance examination to get into the universities in China, I was spending days and nights alone in the library, studying under the looming light, trying to figure out the secret of conquering SAT, the exam I need to take for the college admissions in the U.S. Having already taken the exams for twice and failed for twice, I decided to make that time, June. 7 th, 2014 my last chance. After I set the exam in June as the one last shot, SAT became the only theme of my life during those days. I had to work hard and harder because I must get into my dream school, which would know nothing about me except the SAT score. However, while I could clearly feel my body shaking and as cold as the metal in the ice and kept forcing myself to fall asleep until 4 am, seeing that only 3 hours are left till leaving to the examination hall, I knew that it was going to be a disaster. Such presentiment became stronger and more realistic when I was standing outside the SAT examination hall, waiting for the upcoming exam and having my heart beat so hard that heartbeat became the only sound I could heard. POUND. POUND. Just like after a hangover, I could clearly felt my head spinning and saw the beads of sweat on the nose. My mind was there but my body felt to be someone else’s. “Ah!” The Barron Vocabulary List dropped. “I am really taking too many things.” I thought so when I crouched down to pick the book up while having to hold another tons of books with my left hand. Silence. No sound except the drop of my book. To be
honest, I knew I was way too nervous just like everyone else around who all were immersed into their own world where only SAT existed. Pound. Pound. Everything was so hot and annoying, until I saw the swimming pool, which was only 10 steps away from me and I missed it subconsciously for last 15 minutes since I got here. Right at the moment when I saw the pool, all my thinking got rid of SAT and focused on it, only it, the pool of cool water and heaven of no pressure. In horrible summer in Singapore with 100 degree Fahrenheit, the only thing I wanted to do right now was to jump into it to get off the heat and hell of SAT. Anyhow, the fantastic dream broke into pieces when the student behind me patted on my shoulder to remind me to sign on the paper to prove that I was the person who was supposed to be here to take the exam. Seriously? Who else wanted to take this thing! Picking up the pencil, seeing the encouraging smile on the invigilator’s face, as I have just written down “Yul---”. “Splash!” Silence. And then suddenly came out the burst of laugh. Without even the simplest guess about what had happened, I turned my head toward the pool as soon as possible, but the moment of dropping was too fast that all I could see was a boy standing in the pool, having all his clothes wet but study materials dry and held high. It seemed like he was walking around, not realizing the close distance between him and the pool when he was reading the review materials and dropped into the pool in a sudden. Not knowing why, all of us laugh so hardly. I even saw a boy having a
painful facial expression with all of the eyes, nose and mouth huddling together for laughing so hard that his stomach hurt. To be honest, the scene was really interesting but it was not that funny. Probably we just need some time for us to put down all our pressure from the exam. Not knowing exactly how long we have laughed so hard, we completely forgot about the exam until the invigilator shouted out the least sentence I wanted to hear again, “Come in! The exam is about to start!” Having not seen that boy during the exam, I was still disturbed by him. The picture of him holding the study materials high in the pool kept in my mind. All the time during the reading section, I failed to hold my laugh and saw the invigilator glared at me with anger every time when I looked up. Even till now, I can’t really figure out what is so funny about that boy, probably because of his insistence on SAT I could see from his highly held study materials, probably because of the fact that he lost his last chance but I was still so lucky sitting in the examination hall though I unfortunately but predictably made my lowest mark that time. I still remember the moment of seeing my mom smiling at me when I came out after the examination. My mood was down into the hell and my heart beat really slow. Pound. Pound. I knew that I have just ruined my last opportunity and totally had no chance to get admission from my dream school. It became the truth that the only thing I got from Rice was waitlist, but every time now when I sitting in my room here in Notre Dame, I couldn’t imagine a better ending. After all, I come to the place that is suitable for me. Looking at the dome shinning in the sunlight at
7am, I laughed for being so emotional during the last SAT and smiled for being here, waiting for another school day.