Crunch, crunch, crunch
The snow crunching beneath every footstep not too loud, not too quite just enough to not be intrusive. It provided the perfect monotone backdrop to his thoughts. As he wandered home, many thoughts raced through his mind. “This test wasn’t that bad, in fact it was probably the fairest one” Hmm he thought “I wonder if I did well enough”. The thoughts soon started streaming out in a frantic succession “Yeah the test might not have been bad but that doesn’t mean You did good either-well what is good eno-it be a shamed that on the easiest test of the semester you still don’t do wel-“ A cold wind momentarily interrupted his thoughts.
After days of anxious studying and fussing over the chapters the big day had finally come. “One way or another I’m glad its over with…at least I hope so” Kwame thought as fears of having to repeat the course flashed through his mind. The day had been a long and trying one. The day of the chemistry final had finally arrived. But before that Goliath could be faced, he had dealt with two exams earlier in the day. As had been the case throughout the semester those exams came and went with ease. “Worse case scenario I’ll get a low 80 on either test, realistically though I probably got somewhere in the high 80’s to mid 90’s but chemistry though…”. His mind wandered back over the chemistry exam trying his hardest to gauge how well he had done. It was fitting of the day if not the week. In his pocket his phone silently and patiently blinked with the reminder that he had 2 days worth of ignored and unanswered text messages from friends. All day long he had secluded himself from focusing on anything outside of the finals, study breaks were met not with moments to relax and watch TV but instead to study for the other two exams pushed to the bottom of the totem.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch…
For the first time Kwame noticed the sound of the hard snow beneath his boots. Just two hours before he had made the same trip in the opposite direction, however the footprints like his optimism had vanished. He shook his head half in disappoint half in amazement as to how both had abandoned him so quickly.
As he turned the corner and approached his apartment, Kwame allowed himself to put things into perspective and depart from the gloomy attitude that had accompanied the walk. “I actually learned A Lot to say the least”. He recounted the conversations about the potential dangers of hydrafracking, the call home to his mother in disbelief about a chemical as dangerous as fluoride being in drinking water despite obvious health risk, and learning what Global Warming was exactly and what the causes were. On the doorstep to his apartment he allowed himself one last thought “ I tried. Overall I wish I could have done better in this class this semester some how, some way ; but I did the best I could today, whether my best was good enough… I don’t know”
We’ll have to wait and see…