...and that was my Saturday night.
Last Saturday night was one of the best nights I ever had. (And yes, I know I'm writing about it a week late.) In short, I had a lot of fun wearing a beard onstage, removing said beard offstage for good, and celebrating without said beard. Then I discovered my acceptance into MIT at 1:20 in the morning.
Back up a bit? Our school play was going through its runs of performances last weekend, and I was playing the role of the Fiddler for the Saturday night show. Being a girl, they had to make me more manly, and what better way than to stick on a beard and moustache! How? With glue that incidentally also gives a slight burning sensation! In case any of you are wondering, yes, gluing and wearing the beard the moustache were annoying, but it got less bothersome as I got used to it.
The Saturday night show was great. We have a bunch of great actors both in and out of RCP (yeah Speechies!), so we had quite a phenomenal cast (and forgetting all modesty here, I have to say that I was quite the Fiddler too, and very manly). The sold-out audience was great too: they laughed, they cried, and they clapped--what more could we ask for? The only thing that went seriously wrong with that show was when the Fruma Sarah platform tipped over, with Elyssa and Alanna in it. And no, MIT girl was not involved in the construction of said platform.
That show was probably my last performance on stage as an actor (saying "actress" here just seems strange), and Fiddler on the Roof may very well be my last time being actively involved in theater productions (even as a pit or stagecraft member), making Saturday night quite special.
After the performance, the cast, crew, and pit went over to the local restaurant of Matteo's to celebrate. Not only did I have one of the tastiest salads I have ever had, I also took part in the traditional senior parody of RCP. Though not well rehearsed, it was still funny! The whole night was great, and the cast party lasted until past 1 AM in the morning.
I arrived home around 1:20 AM. MIT decisions were released at noon that day. I originally was going to wait for the decision to come in the mail, but Duke had required me to RSVP to an all-expense paid trip their campus by last Sunday, and I was going to decide whether or not to go based on my MIT decision. I wanted to find out whether it was acceptance, rejection, or waitlist right then and there, so I checked online.
I think I was a little numb with nerves, but not nearly as nervous at last time, probably because I was so worn out from the past intense two weeks of RCP and I already had been accepted into RPI, Duke, and Cornell (on good terms too). At this point, I knew that if MIT didn't accept me, then it would be their loss, and I would still have great options.
Luckily, when I clicked "Display Decision," I saw the words "pleasure" and "admission." My reaction? A blank stare at the computer. A double take. A re-read. Then an "Oh. I got into MIT." I have a tendency to be unenthusiastic at times. Come on, it was 1:20 AM in the morning, and I had been practically living in the school auditorium for the past two weeks, so I hadn't gotten a decent night's sleep for a while! But the happiness sunk in sure enough.
There has been a lot of congratulating going on in the past week. So much that I'm glad it has been dying down (saying "thank you" repeatedly gets wearisome). Probably the best congratulation was when Matt and Dhruv brought a chocolate cake into physics that had "We Love MIT Cziks!" written on it ("Czik," pronounced like "chick," is the last name of someone in our class). Though I knew it was partly to waste some class time, it was still really sweet and nice of them! The eating of the cake was quite fun (I got some chocolate cake shoved into my mouth at one point).
Now, looking at the math department's course catalogue on the MIT website, I can't wait to take course 18.022. Or maybe 18.023...? (In case you're wondering, 18.022 and 18.023 are two types of introductory multivariable calc courses, which yes, I still have to take in college because I ain't getting any credit from Ms. Lewis's multivariable calc class. Fine with me. I think it'll be better this way.) And there are all of these physics courses I want to take too! This is exciting! Edit: I stand corrected. If I take Advanced Standing placement tests, I can place out of the 18.02 courses. But I shouldn't torture myself like that, right?
Even though everybody said that I really deserved to get in, I still feel extremely lucky that the admissions committee decided in my favor. I don't know if the fact that I turned out to be a Physics Olympiad semi-finalist less than a week before the decisions had any impact on my acceptance. There's still some disbelief in me whenever I think, "Wow, I'm going to MIT... I'm really going to MIT!!"
I've rambled on long enough, and I spent enough of the day looking at MIT stuff. So I shall end it here: Why MIT? To get that MIT diploma! Duh. =D