Against the odds, I had done it. Not only done it, but done it well

Iwas walking in Boro Park, under the tracks, when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number on the screen. “Hello?”

“Hello, is this Yossi Myers?”

A train began thundering overhead.

“Yes, who is this?”

“Thzzzx is xgarbledig thssxxm.”

“Sorry?”

“Zxxcchhkk.”

I still didn’t know who I was talking to, but I said, “Okay, hi, this is Yossi.”

“I heard fjvv bbkl ss, I wanted to mtbbdr—” finally, the train passed —”because I like to meet the awardees personally.”

I stopped walking. “WHO is this?”

It was the chairman of the political science department. I had been vaguely aware that the poli-sci program offers an award every year, the Vivian and Dr. David Luchin’s Political Science Award. I had been selected from all the poli-sci students in the program, including the women’s program and the Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn campuses. The chairman was calling to wish me mazel tov and tell me that the dean wanted to meet with me.

Standing stock-still under the tracks with my phone pressed to my ear, two and half years after I first set foot in a college classroom, my first thought was, Yeah!!!

So I was looking forward to graduation.