the one variable

one of my closest friends and i both got waitlisted at michigan. same gpa, same ap load, same odds on paper. he had studied three months straight, jumped over 200 points, and landed a 1500 — one of six people in our whole school who cleared it. his act came back a 33.

i studied too — hours one night, then nothing for a few days, then nothing for a week. he got off the waitlist. i didn't. everything on our applications matched except the one variable i didn't work hard to change costed me everything