“Today is the day,” I thought when I woke up, and again repeatedly as the day went on. I told all my friends to pray for my sister, that she was finding out today. I offered her as a special intention in prayer in every class, and sent up some silent prayers at various points. It almost felt as though it was me who was getting the news. I saw her first right before homeroom, and she looked slightly pale. When I stepped out to talk to her she was shaky and I hugged her. At one point I was wondering why I was sweating so much, and then the obvious reason came to me.

At the end of the day, we went to practice, and she could barely speak. There were two more hours. Two more hours after a forty day wait. Everyone reassured her, “don’t worry”, “we love you”, “take a deep breath”, but nothing was working, obviously. We drove home, in anxious anticipation, trying to talk about anything but “it”.        When we arrived home, there were fifteen minutes left. I spent the next ten pacing around, not knowing what to do with myself. I kept thinking and telling God, as I had begun to think the night before, please take anything from me just so long as she can be in. Take anything away from me, harm me in any way, do anything that’s necessary to balance the scales so she can get in. I knew I would do virtually anything for things to work out that day. With three minutes left of the wait, I turned off the light in my room and lay there, saying one last prayer.

I told God, please grant her this because she deserves it so much. After everything she has been through, please let her feel relief. Please let her know that it was all worth it. She needs this. We need this. I concluded my prayer and stood up, walking over to turn on my light. That was when I heard the yell.

“I’M IN!” she screamed.

I screamed even louder and wrenched open my door. She was running past me, down the hall. My mom and dad ran up the stairs and I screamed some more, jumping up and down, unable to contain my excitement. She had to read it again, to check that it was actually real. Tears ran down my face. It was over, she was in. We all hugged and were just there, shocked and overjoyed, together.

It wasn’t until hours after when I felt a slight aching in my stomach. I could feel the emotional high dropping and I was feeling… could it be? Sad? I didn’t know what was going on. That’s when it hit me. I asked for God to take anything away from me for her to be in. What I didn’t realize was that now, he had. It was official. My sister was officially being taken away from me. My sister was going to go to college.