Dear Dean of Admissions,
I did wonder during those first few semesters why you, the dean of admissions, accepted me into your university electrical engineering program. What made you blindly overlooked my lack of academic qualifications? Perhaps you thought I was old enough to qualify for a mature student status. What made you believe me capable of learning theories of quantum physics and thermodynamics?
This remained a mystery until years later, when I met you at a party of a gay friend of mine. You introduced yourself and confessed the fact that you accepted me into the program solely because I had been the first ballet dancer who had ever applied to your program. The ballet buff and the closet queen in you, jetéd over the hurdle of professional propriety and let me into the program.
To this day, I don’t quite know whether that was such a wise decision you made. I never did fit in to the baseball cap-toting, beer-guzzling mob of that time, but I did, strangely enough, find my place.
I learnt a lot in those years and for this I am eternally grateful to you. Maybe you did propel me into strange world of engineering on a whim, but it also profoundly widened my horizon.
in deep gratitude,
the ex-ballet dancer
What an amazing letter, Lia!!! And the postcard is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteOh, what a loverly poem of caring.
ReplyDeleteLove the postcard series, what a wonderful idea so beautifully narrated.
ReplyDeleteThis one reminds me of a job I once got solely based on a photo I had attached to the application because I reminded the director of his ex girlfriend. I never had a face to face interview (the job was in Vancouver and I lived on the east coast at the time) and just showed up for the first day.
Aah, the mysterious ways of life, don't you love them :)
What an interesting fact to have learned abt your admission! You are so talented!!
ReplyDelete