Spot Strikes Again

The time had finally come for me to start applying for colleges. During last period at school one day, a guidance counsellor came to talk to us about career options, and the college application process.

I knew from my older brother’s experience that going to college was a very expensive endeavour. I also knew some of the expenses included the cost of staying in a dorm, food, tuition, textbooks, and tutors. I didn’t have a clear idea of how to quantify that exactly, having not yet had to pay for much in my life.

My older brother had decided to take accounting, but this was not something that was offered at the college in our city, so he had to move three hours away. He would come home on weekends a couple of times a month.

I didn’t want move that far away if I could avoid it. I knew I would have to get a big student loan if I did that, and the prospect of being nearly a hundred thousand dollars in debt by the time I finished by bachelors degree was not appealing.

What I really wanted to do was become an engineer. We had a renowned engineering program at the college in our city, but it was known for being very difficult to get into. As I walked home from school, I pondered whether I had the grades and enough extracurricular involvement to get into this program. I thought my grades were pretty good, but there would always be people with better grades. I was also involved with a variety of community service activities, but wasn’t sure if it was enough to be accepted.

When I got to the house, I opened the fence to the backyard. Spot came running out of his dog house to greet me. He was our golden retriever that we had adopted three years ago. He barked, with his tail wagging, so I picked up his ball, which was laying in the grass a few feet away and threw it for him. This was our daily ritual when I got home from school. He jumped to catch it, and, not paying attention, he landed in Mom’s garden!

Ever since we got Spot, we have been working on training him not to go into the garden. He was digging up plant after plant. We would walk out into the backyard and see holes all over the garden. At first we thought he was eating the vegetables, but then one day, Dad was moving his dog house to mow the lawn and found a pile of vegetables in there.

“Quick Spot, get out!” I said, running over to him. It was too late, he was already distracted by the fresh tomatoes. He was sniffing them and hitting the tomato plant with his paw.

Mom must have been watching out the window, because she came running out of the house shouting, “Spot, get out of the garden!”

He picked up his ball, and walked back to the grass. I was going to throw it the other direction for him again, but then I remembered the college discussion from class, and that I wanted to discuss it with Mom.

I followed her back into the house, and then Spot followed me, tracking in mud from the garden on his paws. I sat down at the kitchen table and told Mom about the guidance counsellor and what he had said about college.

“I think you would be a really good engineer,” she told me. “Which colleges would you want to apply to?”

I told her I was hoping to apply to the college we had right here in our city.

“I know it’s really prestigious to get into,” I said, “but if I were accepted, then I wouldn’t have to move. I also think getting an engineering degree from there would open me up to some really cool job opportunities.”

I looked down at Spot who was looking at me, tail wagging.

Mom nodded. “Well, I think you should apply. Worst case scenario, is that you don’t get accepted. We can cross that bridge if we come to it. I know there are plenty of other engineering schools in this country that you could get into.”

I borrowed Mom’s laptop, and Spot and I went upstairs. I sat down on my bed and opened up the webpage for the application to our city’s engineering college. Spot came to sit beside me on the bed. He rested his head on my shoulder, almost like he was looking at the webpage with me.

I found on the webpage, that, in addition to submitting my high school transcript, two reference letters, and resume, I needed to also write an essay about why I wanted to be an engineer. I was just getting started typing it, when Mom came upstairs and told me she needed her laptop to do some work.

“But Mom, I needed it to get started on my entrance essay!” I said.

“Well, just get started writing it out by hand, and then you can type it later.”

So Spot and I sat on the bed, and I began writing my essay in the back of a small black notebook I used for school. I was getting pretty frustrated, ripping out pages, crumpling them into little balls, and throwing them in the trash basket. Spot kept sticking his head into the basket and taking out the paper balls. He would then proceed to swat the balls around the room with his paws.

It took me several weeks to finish the draft of my essay, as well as to update my resume, get my transcript, and obtain two reference letters. The resume and reference letters were already in a digital format, stored in my email inbox. One of my reference letters was from my math teacher, and the other was from the seniors centre where Spot and I volunteered every week. I would bring him and we would visit some of the residents at the senior centre. They all loved him. He loved going there and getting all the attention. Some residents would even buy treats to give to Spot during our visits.

Once I had finished the essay, I asked Mom if I could borrow her laptop again. She let me borrow it, and I got to work typing my essay.

I uploaded everything to the application page and paused. I was suddenly very scared to even submit my application. What if I didn’t get in? It was one thing to not get in, because I didn’t apply, but it was another thing entirely to apply and not get in. I had even heard Mom tell Grandma on the phone last night that I was applying to this engineering program. If I didn’t get in I would be letting the whole family down. I knew that there were other colleges with engineering programs I would get into. I decided in that moment, that I was not going to apply. I would apply to the colleges I knew I could get into instead.

I decided to go make myself a cup of hot chocolate before starting to investigate the application processes for the other colleges. I set the laptop on the coffee table, still open to the application submission screen that I had decided not to submit, and walked into the kitchen to boil some milk. Spot, who had been laying in the living room while I was working, didn’t follow me. He was probably napping and hadn’t even realized I left. Sometimes I wanted his life, he didn’t have to worry about getting into college, and money.

I put some marshmallows in my mug of hot chocolate and walked back into the living room. To my surprise, Spot was not napping, instead was standing with two paws on the coffee table, with one paw on the keyboard of Mom’s laptop!

“Spot NO!” I yelled, running to the coffee table and pushing his paw off the laptop. I looked down at the keyboard and was relieved that it didn’t look damaged. My gaze went up to the laptop screen and I froze at what I read, “Thank you for your submission. You will be contacted with the outcome of our decision in 10-12 weeks.”

Spot had submitted my application. The application I had decided not to submit.

I was so stressed. What if I didn’t have the grades to get in? What if they didn’t like my essay? It was about to be a long 10-12 weeks. Every time my phone vibrated I thought it was an email from them.

I think Spot felt kind of bad about submitting my application Obviously, I don’t think he intentionally submitted my application, but I think he picked up on my stress. Every night he would bring me one of the balls of my entrance essay that I had thrown away and set it on my bed, before laying down on the floor beside my bed.

I decided not to tell Mom and Dad about submitting my application, telling them I had decided to apply to other colleges instead. I wrote five other entrance essays in my little black book, before typing them using Mom’s laptop. Spot kept taking my little black notebook and hiding it around the house. I have no idea why he was doing this, but I was annoyed.

“Stop it Spot!” I said one day after I found it in his basket of toys in the living room. The next day I found it under the fridge. Another day I found it the bathroom behind the toilet.

One day, I was walking through the fence, after getting home from school, when my phone vibrated. It was just ten weeks since Spot submitted my application, so I glanced at it less than hopeful and saw from the home screen that it was from our city’s engineering college!

Spot was running out of his dog house for our usual routine, but stopped when he saw the look on my face. I was shaking as I entered the passcode in my phone, and opened my email app. Spot had come and sat right in front of me and stared at me as I read the email.

I skimmed through my name and address to the first sentence of the email. “Congratulations! We are please to offer you a spot for the Fall semester in our engineering program.”

I got in! I kept reading to see if they gave any additional details. “In addition, we are very impressed with your academic performance and community service, and are therefore pleased to offer you a $20,000 entrance scholarship.”

At this point, I dropped my phone. It landed in the grass and I picked it up to re-read the email. The email went on to give details about how to accept the offers for the program and the scholarship. I was still in a bit of disbelief, and ran into the house to ask Mom to read the email.

Spot was close behind me as I threw open the backdoor and ran into the kitchen. “Mom, you need to read this please.” I said, shoving my phone into her hands.

She looked up at me and smiled. “Congratulations! I am so proud of you! Why didn’t you tell us you applied?”

I looked down at Spot, “I didn’t apply. Spot submitted my application for me when I went to make hot chocolate. I had decided I wasn’t going to apply, because I was afraid I was going to be rejected.”

I thought about how Spot had submitted the application. I thought about how he kept taking and hiding my little black notebook, with my other college entrance essays. I sat down on the floor and threw my arms around his neck.

“Thank you Spot! I just need to believe in myself as much as you believe in me!”