Game Face

Act like you expect to get into the end zone. ~Joe Paterno

After literally years of anticipation, today was the Interview Day. (It was anticlimactic.) Now, sure, I've expressed doubts about Teach For America and gone back and forth kind of on if I think I will be good for it and if it will be good for me, but, really, who am I kidding? Even in my lowest TFA moments, there's always been that voice in the back of my head reminding me how much I have wanted this. (I do realize that I am getting to sound like a broken record. Rest assured, come mid-November, once I have decided on everything - if, in fact, there's anything for me to decide - I will no longer be vacillating about any TFA stuff here. I promise.)

I always feel like I am not articulate enough in interviews, to the point of being inarticulate, and I always remember other, better things I could have said after the interview. And maybe everyone feels this way, but it's really annoying! I can only hope that my passion for education and my devotion to the organization came across without sounding insincere. I am always concerned that I sound insincere when I talk about TFA, because it sounds like I'm saying just what the interviewer wants to hear, but I really do believe what I'm saying! Anyway, I think it's great that there are so many parts to the application and interview, so that an area in which you are stronger can balance out an area of weakness. For example, I think if the admissions people were to look at my letters of recommendation or my evaluations from past work with TFA, they would see some strong and positive endorsements, which might make up for the fact that I didn't talk a whole lot during the group exercise today. One can only hope.

I am expecting to get into the end zone. (Sidenote: Does anyone know what the exact quote is about how people will live up to your expectations whether you set them high or low? It's been bugging me since this morning, and it's too vague for Google to figure out.) How can I not, right? I mean, TFA is all about setting big goals and high expectations. And so am I. My chances would likely be better for having worked on staff, all other things being equal, but realistically, how equal could any of us be to each other? We've all got different majors, different experiences, different motivations. There's no use worrying about it now, as my mom told me bluntly: it's over, and the waiting begins.

I also applied to Penn today. So many end zones to get into...