December 13th is marked in my calendar with a big fat star. That star, initially drawn as an emblem of hope and finality, now glares at me. It carries a dark cloud that looms over my head, threatening me with the promise that it will eventually rain; graduation will eventually come.

I find myself in a flood of paperwork. A surplus of tabs are a permanent fixture on my laptop and I wonder whether it's the internet that has been so slow or if I should blame the slowness on these never-ending applications. Applications to jobs, applications to graduate school, applications to apartments-the list goes on and on, a to-do list running through my mind like an overloaded conveyor belt at a grocery store.

It is reassuring to know that this time next year I will be application-free, my unanswered questions, for the most part, will be answered, and my to-do list will, hopefully, be much shorter. Right now, December 13th seems like a deadline, but as the dark cloud promises rain, that rain will yield flowers.