She ran to her back yard, grabbing her stuffed Tigger and teddy bear on the way and held them close as she paced with tears streaming down her face. She turned to the fat envelopes stuffed with information about dormitory life and college catalogs. She was in at Cornell and at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school she hadn't visited yet. Her parents drove her there that next weekend. I knew right away it was for me.
Life is unexpected.
The things you thought would not happen do, said Carol, sporting a maroon Penn T-shirt at the class picnic. An exciting spontaneous life. I don't have to be famous. I don't have to win a Nobel Prize, she said. If you know you brightened one person's day that can make all the difference.