By Mateo Perez ‘23

I woke up on Jan. 28 with my heart racing and palms sweating. That was the day Early Action decisions came out for University of Miami, one of my top choices!

After I got out of bed, I immediately checked my portal to see if they posted an update on my application. Why I thought they would be posted at 7 in the morning, I have no idea. There was no update, so I continued to get ready for the day.

All throughout the day, I kept checking my email. During my second period, I saw “Congrats!” as the subject of a new email; my heart started pounding. I clicked on it, and to my surprise, it was just spam.

The school day ended and no email yet. After I went home, I could not stop thinking about it. I started to make up scenarios in my head, which made me even more anxious.

Ding!

I received a notification, and there it was. “Check your applicant portal.”

I sat down on my couch, and logged into my account. I clicked “view status update,” and not even a second after the page loaded, I screamed and jumped up from the couch. All I read was “Congratulations,” and that was it for me. I was so relieved; my parents were crying and were so happy.

I couldn’t believe it. I got into the University of Miami. All of that work, energy, and stress finally paid off. I finally got to exhale. That was a perfect start to my weekend.