“...and that's why you should vote for me, Jessica Moore, future doctor for the class of 2009!”
The admissions board pauses the tape, having just watched Jessica Moore's admissions essay.
Naturally, they're all stunned at what they just saw. What can they possibly say? They're speechless.
Finally, one of them speaks, “She does have a 4.0 at UCLA, and she scored a 523 on her MCATs.”
Another one, the head of the admissions board, reminds the others, “But a fashion major?”
Yet another one pipes up, “Well, don't forget, sir, I don't think we've ever had one before. And didn't you say we're really pushing the envelope for diversity?”
The one looking at her file tells them, “Her extracurricular activities are very impressive.”
But then, the head seems to have recognized her when he hadn't a moment ago, “She was in UCLA's promotional video.”
But someone actually thinks this is a good thing, “Clearly she's interested in the schools she attends.”
The head looks at her extracurricular activities again, “And she spearheaded the movement that led to getting all of the Greek houses…” he stops to check, to make sure he saw this right. “Gender neutral bathrooms. Apparently that was her sorority's social justice project.”
The other one that piped up before, in her defense, pipes up again, “That’s right. She's a friend to all of the people, rather than just her own sorority.”
That seems to have been the deciding factor, because before he knows what he's saying, the head of the admissions board is saying 5 words that would change the course of Harvard Medical for the next 4 years.
“Jessica Moore. Welcome to Harvard.”
Before she knows it, Jess has packed up her entire room in her sorority house and making the trip straight to Boston. She has her car flown out, and once she herself lands on Boston soil, stays at a hotel for a few nights until the moving van catches up with her, and has the van follow her to the campus.
Jess can feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she gets closer, unable to contain her excitement once she sees that big, beautiful campus.
“Oh my God. It's so exciting! I can't believe it! Harvard!” She says to herself, getting more excited by the minute as she pulls into the parking lot close to her dorm.
Finally, she parks her car, and begins directing the movers towards the dormitory, but she stops for a moment to look up at the campus, telling herself,
“This is gonna be my new house for the next 4 years.”
What she doesn't notice is that her arrival has caught the attention of many alumni, all of them making dumb blonde jokes.
Jess turns, instructing the movers, “This way, guys.” and turns back to lead them to her room.
After everything's been moved in, Jess gets changed and makes her way down to the quad, where like her, they're getting their required materials.
Jess walks over to the M-Z section, straight to the student volunteer, and tells him, “Hi. Moore comma Jessica.”
That prompts him to give her a weird look, but he just looks for her name, finds the envelope with her stuff, and hands it to her, listing them off, “Class schedule, map, and booklist.” and crosses her name off his clipboard.
As Jess rifles through it, she notices something important is missing, “Wait. Where's my social events calendar?”
Clearly this guy wasn't expecting that, so he asks, “Your what?”
Jess informs him, “Social events. You know. Dances, barbeques, potlucks, field trips.”
The guy clearly has no idea what she's talking about, so he just ignores this and just goes back to his clipboard, wishing she'd just go away.
Seeing she's not going to get an answer, she asks a different question, “Okay. Do you know if Tyson Brady has checked in yet?”
Completely irritated, the guy just pretends to look at his chart, and tells her, “You know what, no. Why don't you go ask cruise director on the lido deck?”
That stings, but she doesn't have time to think too much on it, because before she knows it, she's being clustered into a group, and can see others on the quad doing the same.
This volunteer is at least somewhat more friendly, and tells the other new students,
“Alright, welcome to medical school. Here's how this works. We're going to go around the circle and everyone says a little bit about themselves.”
He nods towards the squirrely guy, telling him, “You first.”
Nodding, the guy responds, “My name’s Garth Fitzgerald IV. I have a Masters in industrial design, PhD in philosophy, and for the past 18 months I've been helping my dad bring free dentures to orphans in Somalia.”
The volunteer nods, impressed, “Very nice. How about you?” He asks the only other girl in the circle.
“Hey, how you doing? I'm Meg Masters. I have a degree in women's studies, emphasis in history of combat.” The girl says, punching Garth on the shoulder. “And just last year, I organized the first March for Women with Multiple Sclerosis.”
The volunteer responds, “Impressive.”
Meg responds, “Indeed. Good times.”
Then the volunteer turns to the second guy in the group, who talks without being prompted, “Jimmy Novak. Graduated with honors from Northwestern, and have an IQ of 196.” The other two besides Jess snicker at this, but Jimmy keeps talking, “And it's been said that the great Carver Edlund stole his ideas for his Supernatural book series, from my elementary school short stories.”
Maybe not as amazing as the others, but still impressive, so the volunteer acknowledges that, “Pretty cool.”
Then it's Jess’ turn, who, once the volunteer turns towards her, asks, “Me?"
The volunteer replies, “Yeah.” Thinking there's no way this girl can have anything impressive to say.
Jess responds enthusiastically,
“Hi, I'm Jessica Moore. I'm an Aquarius. I have a bachelor's degree in Fashion Uncovered from UCLA and FIDM, and I was voted president of my sorority, Alpha Delta Pi.”
That seems to be it, but she startles them when she keeps going, “Oh yeah, and before I came here, I told off a salesperson for trying to sell me a dress full price that didn't even have a half-loop top stitching on the hem. Whoever said stuff like that doesn't matter, has never met me.”
Well. That might not have been as impressive as all of their stuff, but they honestly don't know what to make of anything she just said.
A day later, she's standing in front of her mirror, looking at her carefully selected outfit.
“This is it. My first class as a serious med student.” She tells herself, then puts on a pair of glasses with the lenses popped out, to make her look smarter. “Completely sells the look.”
With that, she exits her room, shuts the door, and walks straight to her first class, head held high.
Jess is nice to everyone she bumps into, but they're all just staring at her, making comments on just what the hell she thinks she's doing here.
But Jess doesn't care about any of them, because she sees the man she did all this for, standing by a bulletin board.
God, he's still as handsome as the last time she saw him. Time to make her move. She marches straight past him, and she knows she's gotten his attention when he calls out,
“Jess?”
Jess does a perfect 180 and turns right back around, and feigns surprise, “Brady? Wow. I seriously forgot you go here.”
Brady's clearly too shocked to say anything other than, “W-what are you talking about? I'm sorry, but are you here to see me?”
Jess keeps up the act, ready to give him a real shock, “No, don't be silly. I go here.”
Brady doesn't get it, so he asks, “You...go where?”
Jess drops the bomb, “Harvard! Med school?”
Success! It's all over Brady's face that he doesn't have the first clue how to respond, so he responds, emphasizing on the first word, “ You got into Harvard Medical?”
Jess still keeps up the act, really wanting to drive it home, “What, like it's hard?” But then she drops the act for a moment, telling him, “Oh my God. You absolutely have to help me throw together this party I'm planning. Maybe Mardi Gras, or a luau, or even poker night! It's gonna be just like senior year, but 10x better!”
Brady's still staring at her open-mouthed, so Jess looks at her watch, and tells him, “Uh oh. I gotta skedaddle. Meet me after, on the benches?” When Brady still hasn't said anything, Jess takes his silence as a yes, and says, “Great! See you then.”
Without another word, Jess walks away, Brady unable to do anything but stare after her open-mouthed, like a dead fish.