The greatest moments of my life

1. Opening a letter from my mailbox

This moment might shock you for ranking so highly on the list of greatest moments of my life, but I'll explain exactly why it does.

It was the Spring of 2008. I was a college sophomore and lived in a dorm on campus.

The previous trimester at college I had perhaps bitten off more than I could chew in terms of schoolwork and this was why:

I applied to study abroad blindly after reading the book "Ugly Americans" by Ben Mezrich. In the book the author describes what living in Japan was like for renegade Nikkei Exchange traders in the early 90's. I applied abroad simply because I was told I ought to, and chose Japan off the list of what was available based on what I read in Mezrich's book, pretty much.

To get into the study abroad I had to matriculate at the Japanese university who had minimum acceptable GPA of 3.0 and heading into the application I had that. Hwoever, I was dangerously close to going under a 3.0. There was no shot I'd be able to get a B or better in all three of my courses because two of them were in the hard sciences where I had to try very hard not to fail the course completely.

That term I remember taking a particularly hard course Mathematical Cryptology which required memorization of multiple pages of algorithms and number theory proofs. Some of the proofs were a few lines, others were full page in length. At exam time we'd often see new problems never before seen, in fact that was essentially the modus operandi of the Math department (and I'd imagine it still is). Knowing the material isn't enough they really want to stretch you to think under pressure come exam time. Although I rarely went to the library to study (almost never) I spent multiple 12-hour days writing out the proofs over and over in an effort to commit them to memory so I would not fail the exam.

With the final exams over, I went on a walk down the street inside campus by myself one afternoon. The stress relief was immense. It was finally all over. I had no idea if I would have kept my 3.0 GPA but I tried pretty much as hard as I could. A day or two later I started crunching the numbers and it was incredibly close when it came down to it. I had to consider that attaining even a C+ in the Cryptology class would be an achievement worth writing home about (although no one understands why who hasn't been in the department). In other courses if you study your hardest you'll probably get an A. In Math, you might still fail. That's where the crushing mental pressure comes into play. The other courses weren't exactly easy, but in comparison somewhat easy.

I pushed myself to the absolute brink when studying for the Mathematical Cryptology exam and was blindsided to see multiple full page exam questions that were difficult. My head was spinning by the end of the multiple hours-long exam.

In my other courses I studied "enough" but I definitely was so burnt that I couldn't bring myself to study for at least one of them, so I winged it. When I got my exam scores back a week later I was biting my fingernails. I looked at the permutation of letters. C+, C+ B+. There's no way I've kept my 3.0 GPA I thought. I didn't do it. Then I looked at the bottom of the page. 3.018. It was like a miracle. I had just barely kept my 3.0. It was God's work. If I had score just a few points different on any of the final exams I wouldn't had made it. Just barely made it.

Still, something didn't feel right. I would have had to have written an essay that would be approved. I didn't mention Mezrich in my essay. I wrote it about globalization of technology and Japanese influence on global technology.

Then, there were the faculty recommendations. One of my professors apparently thought I was a dumbass. Sure, I'm a jock. Perhaps even a "dumb jock" but she wasn't convinced I was really worthy of attending the university. She was the main ambassador to the program and interviewed me about it. In the interview she said, "Are you sure you will be able to do this? Are you smart enough. I hope you don't embarrass me!!! God, please don't embarrass me!!"

All of this considered, I figured, well I probably won't get in. After all, I was used to rejection. I had been rejected from every single college I applied to aside from one. I had just lost my spot on the varsity soccer team (read about that in my book) and my girlfriend had dumped me within 24 hours of our agreement to become unified. I was a walking picture of rejection. And people wonder why guys turn to booze.

Then, one morning, several weeks later after Spring break, I opened up my campus mailbox to reveal a small envelope. I had no clue what it was, actually. I figured it was just some sort of advertisement for a club on campus, that type of thing I often received and threw directly into the trash. An orange Xerox'd piece of computer paper advertising some new campus group. I opened the letter. I was by myself in my dorm room and it was probably about 11am. It was quiet outside, and I had the window open. I was sitting on the crappy twin mattress that came stocked in the room. I rarely put sheets on (in fact, almost never). I was a savage like that. I opened the envelope and pulled out a single white piece of paper and my eyes began to read it.

Dear Mike Del Vecchio, you have been accepted.

I sat there reading it over and over again. Accepted. I was accepted. I couldn't believe it. The feeling was indescribable. I figured it would never happen. Winning a close game of NFL Blitz gives you a feeling of excitement. This was different. It went beyond that. It was pure disbelief. I sat there holding the acceptance letter for a bit by myself in the dorm room. After maybe ten minutes I eventually tucked it away and became very silent for the rest of the day.