I became the tightly spun football out of Tom Brady’s hand, dropped and lost by the receiver. Applications due, essays due, and expectations high as ever. Each college, footballs me and works me so hard so I can become the next successful college, dropout. The application process is like watching the ocean until it runs out of waves, cruel and unusual. And as the deadlines approach I deflate, drowning in the stress. Someday, I hope to be the best football around, but for now I’m the unwanted deflated ball burrowing myself under the empty bleachers.